Equus
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Harmony Potter prefers the life of a simple horse rancher after she left England. Too bad fate has other plans, as she meets Dino Cavallone who is more than a simple man. He's the don of a mafia familigia! Harmony finds herself married into the mafia, but that's only the start of her chaotic new life. And she wouldn't have it any other way! FemHarry/Dino
1. Chapter 1

The day Dino met her, he honestly never expected anything to happen. The woman who owned this particular horse ranch was _very_ selective about who bought her charges. It had taken him _months_ of several deals just to get the address of the ranch and be allowed to look at the animals in question.

And that was just to get ON the property.

When he saw the horses, the animal lover in him fell in love with them immediately. They were immaculately cared for with love and affection. Some showed signs of past abuse, but they were clearly loved now.

This was before he saw _her_.

One look at the young woman tending the massive palomino stallion with the shiny coat he fell in love. Not with the horse, though it was clearly a handsome specimen, but with the woman.

She was young, not even in her twenties. Late teens at least, with thick red hair that flowed down her back and ended in playful curls. It was almost the color of a dark red, almost black color. Her skin was lightly tanned, though Dino noted a few scars that she didn't bother to hide. Like the ones that went down her back almost like she had been hit with some sort of sharp spikes from a tail. Her eyes were a green he could only liken to fresh grass, and kind. But there was a sadness and wariness in them that made him want to know who had hurt her so badly that she had almost closed herself off to everyone save animals.

But it was her smile that did him in. He knew he would kill if it meant that smile was aimed at him... for him.

It took him a few moments to realize there was something nuzzling his hair.

"Eh?"

The sound of a light, tinkling laughter drew him in.

"It seems the Herd Master likes you," she said, giggling.

Dino turned to face the 'alpha' horse, or "herd master" as they were sometimes called.

It was a pure white stallion with almost an almost ethereal silver man and tail, and hooves that shone under the light. All it was lacking was the horn and he'd swear it was the perfect representation of an actual _unicorn._

The horse was nuzzling his hair, almost affectionately.

"I'm Harmony. Are you from the Chaivarone family?"

"I'm their boss," he openly admitted. The idea of lying never once occurred to him.

Harmony smiled _at_ him and he almost had trouble breathing. How the hell was she doing this to him so easily? Reborn would be appalled.

"Well if _he_ likes you, then I suppose I could trust you with my herd. But only if you pass a small test of course. Quest is a very good judge of someone's true character, however I prefer to know that the people who will be buying from me _actually_ know what they're talking about."

"I completely understand," said Dino.

And he did. Horses had been something of a hobby of his...right up until he started making a _lot_ of money on horse trading and to a much lesser extent, horse racing. He had a natural eye for horse flesh, one that Reborn had fine tuned one he realized Dino's ability to discern whether a horse would be worth the effort.

Ironically his love of horses made it a lot easier for him to rebuild his family fortunes and make a nice, clean profit that the cops couldn't investigate them for.

That wasn't to say he didn't have a few criminal activities, but he made damn sure that any money laundering through specific stables was kept firmly in house. It was hard to dispute a large order of hay, after all.

Small, steady doses were almost impossible to notice...and it had gotten Reborn's open approval at the deception, since Dino preferred to buy local when he could.

Dino looked over Harmony's charges and noticed something odd.

"It's almost like you have several different herds."

"I do. One is a specialty stock that you'd need certain clearance for, and even then I'm extremely picky on who is allowed to buy them. The one I normally sell is the one that sticks closest to the main house, while the third and fourth herds stick closer to the forest which is unilaterally off limits to everyone. Even I don't go in there without precautions. There is an unofficial fifth herd, but thankfully it's empty at the moment."

"Fifth herd?"

"I take in abused, neglected and abandoned horses. Especially from the disreputable racing tracks. Needless to say they need a lot of specialized care, which is why they're the unofficial herd. I keep them separate until I'm certain they can be rehabilitated. I _hate_ having to put them down," said Harmony scowling.

"I hate the disreputable tracks, they're always about money and never about the animals," said Dino in honest disgust.

His territory took up the majority of the _legal_ horse racing tracks, and he made damn sure they were at least semi-reputable. The owners all knew he had a zero tolerance policy for abuse or neglect of the animals and if he heard even a whisper of it happening he would investigate. He wasn't above shutting a track down until he knew the animals (and to a lesser extent the racers) were in acceptable condition.

That usually coincided with an abrupt "change in ownership" that generally went hand in hand with someone being iced as a warning to the others.

"I have the distinct feeling you're going to be one of my rare repeat clients," she said with a smile. "That is, if Quest doesn't chase you off by making you bald first."

Dino lightly bopped the horse before he brought out something far more interesting for the stallion to chomp on. Quest accepted the bribe of the green apple eagerly and lost interest in Dino's hair, to his relief.

All in all, he rather enjoyed meeting Harmony.

And if he happened to schedule his purchases so that he could meet her _personally_ , well he doubted anyone would comment. At least he hoped they wouldn't.

 _Later that night..._

Romario watched his young boss with a slight smile on his face. Dino had perked up considerably since he met the owner of the most reputable and sought after horses in the business. The Marauder's Ranch was almost impossible to get in, but if you earned the favor of the owner then all the animals you bought from them were hard working, well loved, and were the best behaved. She never sent out a sick animal, and if you had to let the horse go she would buy them back for a decent price.

She also took in abused horses, and rehabilitated them to the point that they rarely had issues with humans.

It was no wonder his boss fell for her, and hard.

The only issue he could see was that she was a civilian and they had absolutely nothing on her background save for when she first opened the ranch.

For now he'd keep his silence and hopefully encourage his boss to go for it. He hadn't seen Dino this happy since before Reborn showed up and he was still several people _away_ from being stuck as Decimo.

* * *

Harmony was a little baffled as to why Dino had come back. He claimed he was planning to buy a few more horses from her (and had already picked up the ones he paid for a week ago personally) but somehow she had the feeling that wasn't what he was really doing.

And then Firenze clued her in when she made a comment about it. The centaur herd had been rather agreeable when she told them what she was asking of them and why. Once they realized she only wanted them to act as the 'guardians' of the unicorn, pegasus and rarely the "unofficial" fifth herd which consisted of horses that needed time away from humans, they were quite happy to leave the Forbidden Forest behind.

Mostly because she made it very, _very_ clear to the head centaurs that she would leave the entirety of the forest to the centaur herds, and focus more on the main areas of the ranch. Anyone stupid enough to go in without their prior permission was not her problem and she made it clear with a series of signs in several languages that the forest was off limits to unauthorized personnel and that anyone stupid enough to go in without permission from the owner would be dealt with accordingly.

Underneath it was a note in big, easy to understand words that stated without any sympathy that if you went in without permission, they were not legally responsible for anything that happened, so don't come whining to her.

Firenze had found it very amusing, and it had done a lot to soothe the anger of the less friendly centaurs like Bane. The fact she kept out of their forest made the herd happy. Especially since the only thing she asked of them was something they didn't mind doing in the first place...I/E guarding those who needed protection from humans.

Firenze had chuckled when she made a comment about Dino's behavior, before he told.

"The young stallion is courting you," he said with amusement.

Harmony's face went into shock. Then she tilted her head.

"Young stallion?"

"Quest made a comment about how his men all call him 'Bucking Bronco' or 'Bucking Horse'. And he acts more like a gangly colt than a human, one who leads the herd but is awkward away from it."

Harmony snickered at that. She had already experienced the "infamous" klutziness of Dino when he tripped and knocked them both into a water trough. Fortunately she liked to keep those cleaned, so they just got a little wet and he apologized profusely.

The thing was she had no idea how one was supposed to react to being courted.

"For now simply accept his feelings towards you as genuine and allow the stars to fall where they may," said Firenze. "I have not seen many human courtships, but this one at least does not have the feel of being star-crossed like your parents."

"He's got the blessing of the lead unicorn, which is more than I can say about the last set of admirers I had," said Harmony. "That's good enough for me, even if I am uncertain how I'm supposed to feel about that. I have no idea what love is."

"Albus was wise in many things, but he extended himself too far for too long," said Firenze shaking his head.

It was part of the reason why the herd agreed to move along with the unicorns and to a lesser extent the thestrals. Though most of that herd stayed in the school as they pulled the carriages, the ones who hadn't been trained in that way had gone with Harmony to her new home and stayed primarily with the pegasus herds. She bought a lot of fresh meat from the butchers, though they thought she was spoiling her guard dogs. That or she liked meat.

The centaurs were _glad_ to be well away from the English fool's reach, especially since it was clear that Albus was too far gone in his own sense of accomplishment to see reason. He would be dead long before he realized the error in his judgment when it came to Harmony... especially when it came to things such as her living conditions and her 'safety'.

Though by unanimous agreement, Firenze was now the "spoke-centaur" for the herd. Harmony didn't interfere with their herd politics and they let Firenze deal with the only human they could reasonably tolerate. As long as the horses were happy, both sides could care less _what_ the other got up to on their own lands.

* * *

"Stupid Dino, I heard you've been visiting a certain ranch with increasing frequency of late."

"GAH!" yelped Dino, tripping on his own feet. Reborn always did enjoy causing that reaction. "Who told you?"

"I am all knowing, Stupid Dino."

And by that, Reborn meant Romario called him and mentioned it at one point. Dino seemed to making some headway at least, because the girl hadn't chased him off for visiting simply for the sake of seeing her. She clearly figured out what was going on, but was content not to bring it up.

Naturally Reborn was very interested in meeting her. Dino might be running his familigia full time now, but he was still Reborn's student. It wouldn't do for the klutz to marry the wrong person and bring it all crashing down.

Not that he was _worried_ about that. This "Harmony" seemed to be the sensible sort and ran a tight business. She was making a lot of money despite the amount it cost to maintain a ranch that large and only selling her animals to a select few who had earned her favor.

He just didn't want to see Dino hurt. Not unless it was from his chaotic behavior, that is.

Dino groaned. He was going to get whoever told Reborn about his interest in Harmony. Bringing in his former tutor was just not fair.

"I want to meet her."

Dino had a sudden, worrisome thought.

"No chaos around the horses. She's very protective of them and she might kick me out and ban me if she even _thinks_ I have any control of your actions."

Reborn smirked at him, which did not do anything good for his mellow.

However what Dino thought would happen and what _did_ were so far apart it wasn't even funny. Well it was, but only after the fact.

Harmony took one look at Reborn who played up the "I'm just a cute little toddler card", then at Dino. Her expression was flat and unimpressed.

"Really? Does he actually think I'll fall for his baby act?"

Reborn looked at her with interest.

"It's not like I have any say on what he does or where he goes," said Dino helplessly.

"I believe you. He practically radiates arrogance and smarm, except I'm betting he has the skills to back it up. I'll allow you here so long as you do not harm or startle the animals. And if you go into the forest you're on your own... I have no say in what happens to trespassers," she said bluntly.

"Interesting."

"While your curse seems odd, it's no concern of mine," she said dismissively.

Reborn's attention was immediately on her the second she said the word "curse".

"How do you know it's a curse?"

"Real infants would fidget wearing those sort of clothes and there's no way they'd be able to maintain their balance like you do on his shoulder. Plus that much self-confidence only comes from an adult, and I can feel the energy coming off that pacifier of yours. I have no idea _what_ that thing is, but I know it's cursed just from the feel of it," she said flatly. "If you want to know what really tipped me off, it was the eyes. They feel far too old and tired to possibly belong to a child."

Reborn stared at her, saying nothing.

"Stupid Dino, if you don't marry this girl I am going to make your life a living hell all over again," said Reborn, going to inspect the ranch. He wasn't much of a horse fan, but there was something off about this place.

Dino and Harmony blushed at the way Reborn had more or less given his blessing in such a back-handed manner.

"So who is he?"

"My former tutor," said Dino, still blushing. "He wanted to meet you after one of my men mentioned you offhand. How did you know he's not a toddler though?"

"Again, it was the eyes that tipped me off. If you look at them, and I mean _really_ look, you can see how tired and old he is. Real children still have a sort of 'innocence' and a sense wonder...but he's seen far too much and has come out rather apathetic about it all," she replied.

Dino made a note to actually LOOK at Reborn, or at least meet his eyes.

He was fascinated when he saw the exact same thing she did... Reborn was tired and rather apathetic about the world in general, though he tried to make up for it with his chaos. It was rather sad, actually.

Oddly, he seemed to gain a bit of wonder and amazement after they left the ranch. Like he had seen something that had given him a bit of that old spark of magic back, though it wasn't enough to overcome decades of experiences and far too many kills.

Dino wouldn't find out until long after the fact that Reborn had stumbled into the pegasus/thestral paddock and ended up meeting Quest...without the spells on his horn to keep it hidden from normal humans.

The unicorn had taken one look at Reborn and nuzzled him, allowing him to sit on his back while he 'inspected' the herds. Yes, he was a killer, but there was still some good left in him. Though it was mostly because of his Flames. Suns were primarily _healers_ after all, and his was particularly strong even if he had gone a different way.

Just seeing a unicorn and it allowing him to touch it had done wonders for his mood. And brought up a lot of questions he didn't want to answer _just_ yet.


	2. Chapter 2

Today was the day. Dino was going to make a move so obvious that not even Harmony, who seemed rather oblivious when it came to someone liking her as a woman, could mistake for anything else.

Romario watched the whole thing with amusement. As Dino's right hand man (and the one who had practically raised the poor kid), he was rather happy for his boss. Dino's interest in the ranch owner was good for him. He was in a better mood overall and things seemed a lot brighter for his boss after he got to see her.

The fact that Harmony _somehow_ managed to gain the approval of Reborn of all people with a single meeting spoke volumes about her. Though Romario was a bit baffled as to what could have happened to put an actual _spring_ in Reborn's step when he left.

Dino definitely perked up when they reached the ranch, causing Romario to hide a chuckle.

And he was lucky enough to catch the moment on camera to share with his fellow Guardians. While the kiss had been brief, the way her face lit up a bright red and the fact she didn't immediately slap him for it spoke well of Dino's chances.

Especially since she didn't object to an actual date later in the week. Though apparently she would have to go shopping, as she didn't really _have_ anything fancy to wear outside of her usual clothes, which were generally jeans, second-hand t-shirts, or farm wear.

In fact outside of going to town to get supplies, she almost _never_ left the ranch, a fact Romario found puzzling.

Even so, he was happy for his boss. Dino seemed honestly happy around her.

* * *

 _A week later..._

Harmony didn't get dolled up, especially after the disaster of fourth year when her efforts went entirely unappreciated because her "date", and she was very loathe to call that pig such, had been more interested in sulking over Hermione than looking at her.

And afterwards she had been too disgusted with the sudden shift in attitude and obvious leering at her breasts and ass to care about such things.

Dino, at least, kept his eyes _firmly_ above the chest and waist line. Though she knew he did cast a full body glance at her for a few seconds, but that was what she wanted. The fact he didn't do it a second time and kept his hands firmly in 'safe zones' meant he was already leagues above the mere boys she had dealt with in school.

Though there was a reason she didn't go into bars or out on the town. The amount of idiots trying to hit on her pissed her off _immensely_.

"I have to admit, this is the first time I've been on anything that even remotely qualified as a 'date'," she said, looking over the selections. It wasn't bad, and she really hadn't tried out any Italian dishes before. She generally cooked her own food.

Dino gave her an odd look.

"Really?"

"Most of the idiots I had to deal with were 'boys' rather than 'men'. They thought I would be interested in fools who stared at my chest or ass for several minutes, or who openly _bragged_ about doing the looser girls in my school. And the one time we held a dance at my school, the only one who bothered to ask me was too busy staring at a girl I consider my sister and complaining that she had chosen to dance with someone from a different school rather than him. The only reason he asked me was because no one else would give him the time of day and I didn't have a date at the time," said Harmony sourly.

That had thoroughly killed any desire to be with Ron.

It was bad enough the jerk had actually _sulked_ about the fact Hermione had agreed to be Krum's date that night, but the fact he hadn't even registered she had TRIED to get dolled up with help from Lavender and Parvati had pissed her off. It was like he didn't register her as a girl at all, or realize that he was insulting his 'date'.

After the dance was finally over, Hermione had agreed that while they could be friends with Ron, the idea of dating him was never going to work out. Not after the way he snubbed Harmony so thoroughly without even giving an iota of regard for her feelings. And the way he had growled whenever one of the other boys tried to dance with her resulted in Harmony being considered a total wallflower.

The entire ball had been a complete disaster in her opinion.

Dino winced with sympathy.

"How about you?"

"The usual, girls only want me for my looks, my position, the fact I managed to rebuild my family's empire almost from the ground up after some nasty gambling habits left it crippled, or simply because of my family name," said Dino.

"God I hate those idiots," said Harmony with complete empathy.

"You too?"

"Long story short I'm the heiress to _two_ ancient and noble families that have large bank accounts and I'm rather famous in certain circles," she said in open disgust. "That plus the society I was living in at the time has this thing about pushing girls into political marriages and popping out as many heirs as possible... well, you can see why I was very happy to _leave_."

"I bet," said Dino, relaxing a bit. "Wait, ancient and noble?"

She rolled her eyes.

"I know have a manor in Wolverhampton, a townhouse in London, and some old property somewhere in Scotland that I've been told is an actual castle, never mind the old titles that aren't even _used_ anymore except by people trying to sound more important than they really are on old victories by people long dead. I _think_ , but I've never bothered to confirm that there's a baroness or marquis title attributed to _one_ of my family names. Like I said, I never bothered with it."

Dino blinked. To be honest he didn't really see much point in big manors or castles either, and he heard rumors that what the Vongola alone paid for their big castle was a veritable tax _nightmare_. One thing did stick in his mind though...

"You're from the UK?"

"England, to be exact, though I spent a lot of time in Scotland so I picked up a slight accent," she replied.

"Italy must have been a big change."

"I love the anonymity, and the weather is fantastic. It's so dreary in England, especially the weather! And don't get me started on the boring fashions I had to deal with at my school!" she laughed. Dino grinned. "Though I haven't really had a chance to explore Italian foods. I've been mostly making my own."

Dino seized on his chance. He knew for a fact she wasn't a vegetarian (though he would only find out later most of the meat was for the Thestrals and the odd guard dog she owned), but Harmony was rather open to trying anything... except horse meat.

"Wait, so one idiot managed to get past your screening test and turned out to be a member of a group that actually _eats_ horses?"

Harmony looked rather disgusted by the idea, though he could understand why.

"Quest looked very much like he wanted to punt that idiot out of the ranch, though it took an hour before I finally figured out what he really wanted. The second I busted his purpose in my ranch to buy 'all organic' horse meat to try, I almost gelded him before I sent him packing with my rifle."

Dino snickered.

"I would have paid to see the look on his face when you broke that out."

(She later showed it to him, and he was right in that it was hilarious to see.)

Dinner was spent sharing jokes and funny stories, though Dino would openly admit Harmony had him beat. The fact she allowed him to make small kisses on the cheek or even hold her hand was a big tell that their date went well.

The fact his good mood persisted for over a week (thus increasing his productivity considerably) was a major bonus.

* * *

Dino cringed.

"Voi! I heard you were seeing someone, but I didn't think it would turn you into this much of a sap!" said Squalo loudly.

"Why are you here again?"

"I need to get away from the assholes I work with, and you don't annoy me when drunk," deadpanned Squalo.

Considering Squalo was holding the Varia together with Xanxus MIA, Dino could understand that. He wasn't here to socialize...he just wanted a drinking buddy who didn't piss him off and he could relax around.

A sudden idea occurred to him, and he pulled out his phone.

"Voi! Who are you texting?"

"Harmony. I was asking her if she wanted to meet an old school buddy of mine, since she's very tight lipped about the idiots she suffered with for five years. She doesn't really get out much."

Harmony sounded amused, even if it was a text. Though he would need to pick her up first...she generally rode one of her horses into town rather than get a license. All the food was generally put in a wagon she brought, though most chocked her ability to carry so much as extremely good organization skills and stronger than normal horses.

The meeting between Harmony and Squalo was bizarre, even for Dino's standards. The two just hit it off, though how or why he would never be able to fully understand.

Harmony took one look at Squalo and something seemed to pass between them. Not romantic interest (thank god for small mercies!) but more akin to professional respect.

"Harmony," she said, holding out her right hand.

"Squalo," he said, firmly shaking it with enough force to make people wince. She didn't even bat an eye.

"Am I missing something here?" asked Dino with some concern.

"Nothing. So, I heard drinking and possible blackmail opportunities. Who wants to see a bunch of grown men get drunk under the table by a girl half their size?"

Squalo grinned. A chance to bet without Mammon taking most of his cut!

 _A few hours later..._

Dino stared at the number of shot glasses, then at Harmony who only seemed a little tipsy.

Squalo looked almost gleeful, though that could be attributed to the _large_ amount of cash he had made betting on Harmony's ability to drink straight whiskey.

"I think that's enough mass humiliation for one night. Now if we don't start bringing out the good stuff I might not be able to feel a proper buzz," said Harmony cheerfully.

Squalo was openly snickering. Though he did note that she seemed to lean on Dino a bit when the alcohol made it's way through her system. The fact she had the sense to eat something to absorb it made him look at her with approval.

Dino had found a real catch with her. And he barely knew anything about the girl!

As the night dragged on, Harmony got a little information about Squalo and the people he worked with. The second he mentioned the fact his boss was put on ice (though he didn't mention how literal the ice was) because his old man didn't have the balls to tell him something very important before it blew up in his face, her drunkeness gave way to genuine empathy and sympathy.

For Xanxus that is.

"Ugh. I swear old geezers with too much inherent power are all idiots. I'm guessing the old bastard is in charge, but doesn't have the balls to hand over the reigns to his kids despite the fact they were almost certainly old enough to handle the job?"

"Voi. Better believe it. The bastard already lost two of his sons and with how Stupid his third one is acting it's only a matter of time before he goes too," said Squalo, more than a little drunk at this point. He was vague, but anyone in their line of work knew he meant the Vongola simply because of who Squalo was.

Harmony actually put a hand on his shoulder, a look of deep sympathy and honest understanding on her face.

"When your boss is let go, give me a call. He sounds like he could use someone who will listen to him bitch about the idiot who locked him up and not have it get back to said bastard in the first place. And I _always_ carry good booze," she said patting him on the shoulder. She even gave Squalo her phone number. "God knows I've got far too much experience with manipulative old bastards who should have died to clear the way for people with actual common bloody sense."

Squalo threw back another shot, though for some reason he would remember her offer when Xanxus returned to them.

"Sounds like a story behind it."

"Too public and I'm not nearly drunk enough to retell even half of it. But I can say this... I can appreciate the sort of genuine loyalty you have for your boss. The fact you're holding everything together despite all the crap that's been thrown at you and having to deal with the sheer insanity of your coworkers says a lot."

Squalo looked her dead in the eye, a sort of clarity in his face despite the fact he was half-way drunk.

"And what does it say about me?" he asked bluntly.

"That regardless of what opinion the old guard has of you, that you are a better man than most of them likely are. Only a _real_ friend would stick around to keep things together when everything goes to hell and you have no idea if your boss would ever return, much less intact," she said with absolute sincerity and no deceit. "Your boss is a lucky bastard, having someone like you around."

Squalo stared at her. He could tell she was being absolutely honest about what she said and she meant every word.

"Voi. If you don't marry this woman, then I might have to poach her for myself," said Squalo to Dino, dead serious.

Dino groaned.

"You're the second person to say that to me," he said, waving for another drink.

Squalo blinked.

"Who was the first?"

"Some fake toddler with a yellow pacifier and too old eyes," said Harmony flippantly, and Squalo choked on his scotch.

The fact remained though, that Dino's girlfriend made one major impression on the Varia Rain, and it was better than most "civilians" ever could have.


	3. Chapter 3

They were on another date, and by this time Harmony had given Dino full permission to use the term "girlfriend" when it came to her, when it happened.

A rival familigia decided that now was the perfect time to kill Dino when he had limited men around him and he would be protecting the woman with him. A woman who by all accounts was a mere _civilian._

Ergo not important except as hostage material.

At least not important until Harmony got pissed off at them interrupting their date to _deal_ with them.

The resulting beat down was short, brutal, and for the attacking idiots, painful as hell.

"...What style was that?" asked Dino.

"Tai Chi with several element of Qigong. Took me _forever_ to find a master at the latter style who didn't openly dismiss me for being a woman who has zero martial arts training and was open to staying on a horse ranch."

Master Fon was odd, but a surprisingly good listener and a fellow tea addict. He still came to visit and last time he even brought his apprentice who fell in love with Harmony immediately. Especially the unicorns.

I-Pin was still very much a little girl, and thus loved unicorns and horses in general.

On an unrelated note, Fon had been visiting far more often with I-Pin when he could get away with it.

She suspected he was openly contemplating leaving I-Pin with her so she could get an actual childhood and making frequent visits for training. The girl had a natural knack toward martial arts, and there was no reason not to encourage it.

However making a child that young kill was another matter.

"Actually my teacher is about due for a visit with his current apprentice. She absolutely _loves_ my ranch and I've almost got a special surprise ready for him. It just needs a few tweaks."

Harmony, in a fit of boredom, had begun to tweak the idea of a vanishing cabinet and a port key into something rather unique.

Basically she bought a set of keys from the goblins with no enchantments and paid for whatever spells they used to have the key determine if it was near the lock it belonged to, specifically the blood bound vaults.

Her idea was to make a set of keys that would allow you to teleport from anywhere in the world to a pre-set location like a magical hospital or a safe house simply by placing the key into a solid object that could open up...like a door or window for instance. The one that the key was bound to could then go through and be at the location without the nauseating feeling of a port key or the difficulty of knowing which cabinet you were walking through, as they were notorious for trapping you between locations until the other door was open.

She almost had the keys ready, but she needed a proper test subject and she didn't have anyone she trusted enough to use them.

The keys even had a 'memory' function, so long as the door wasn't shut. It would allow you to return to wherever you were previously simply by walking through the door you came out of. It only worked once though, and you had to reuse the key to return.

If the idea worked she was going to patent it with the Ministry. That would keep the vultures away from it, and it not she would happily ask Squalo if Mammon would mind acting as the one to go after anyone trying to steal the keys or their enchantments from her after they were patented.

Squalo bitched more than once (he found her a very easy person to talk to because she actually listened and let him vent) about the "miser brat" and their addiction to large amounts of money.

Dino grinned.

"I'd love to meet your teacher sometime. Though for now...how about we get back to our date?"

Harmony smiled at him, glad he didn't seem put off by the whole "I can kick a grown man's ass with ease" thing.

* * *

Dino stared at Harmony's martial arts teacher. He couldn't help it.

"So _you're_ the reason she's been in a much better mood lately," said the obvious Arcobaleno. Red pacifier meant Storm, and Dino vaguely recalled Reborn mentioning the Storm Arcobaleno's name once.

"You're Fon, right?"

Fon smiled behind his sleeve.

"And you're Reborn's old student. I must admit I am surprised that you are the one who's put Harmony in a better state of mind. She was rather lonely save for our frequent visits," said Fon.

There was a squeal of girlish delight, and the two briefly looked outside to where I-Pin was running around one of the herds. This one seemed to have silver-white horses with the odd smaller (and clearly younger) colts and mares sticking nearby. They didn't seem to mind I-Pin at all, and in fact were almost protective of her.

Fon had a content smile on his face, seeing her run around like the little girl she actually _was_ like that. Like Harmony, I-Pin was very mature for her age.

"You know if you come clean about being in the mafia, you'll get a few surprises of your own. What are your intentions with Harmony?"

Dino blinked, before something fell out of his pocket. He had only recently found the thing, though he had taken to carrying it around for good luck when he came to visit.

Fon took one look at the ring in the box and smiled.

Dino was good for Harmony, and considering his teacher would likely take the news of the magical society better than some.

"I see."

"Why are you here anyway? I thought you operated out of China."

Fon blinked for a moment, before a slow smile came upon his face. There was a reason he got along with Reborn so well.

"You mean you haven't noticed what she is yet?" he said with open humor.

"She's Active?" said Dino with surprise. He hadn't noticed...he had assumed she was Latent at the least.

"Oh she's Active alright. It surprised me quite a bit, especially when my yearly check up revealed something rather surprising," said Fon with humor.

Harmony was a name that was both fitting and slightly ironic considering what her Flame type was.

Harmony walked in with a happy smile on her face.

"I take it you two had fun talking?"

"It was quite amusing," said Fon.

"I made some of those dishes you like and there's a pot of fresh tea I know you enjoy on the table."

Fon had a genuine smile on his face as he went to the kitchen.

She took one look at Dino and hid a laugh.

"You know my teacher, don't you?"

"Only vaguely. He's a colleague of Reborn's," admitted Dino. He looked at I-Pin. "Is it safe for her to be playing with the herd like that?"

"The Pure herd is safer than the one I keep up front, though she knows not to go near the others without an adult present. They like kids, especially little ones like her and the herd will protect small children from harm."

Dino watched as one of the mares gently coaxed I-Pin away from the sharp hooves and onto the back of one of the older stallions. The little girl hugged the horse's mane and looked very much her age, rather than an almost trained assassin.

Seeing them lay down with the younger ones in the center and I-Pin happily napping against one of the mares set most his worries aside.

"I'm surprised they aren't among the main herd."

"Quest is the lead stallion, and he's the only one who can tolerate most humans for long periods of time. Most of the time they're in the forest and they're one of two herds that are never for sale. This is more of a sanctuary for them than anything. Though the younger ones might tolerate you, the older ones are very picky about who they allow near them."

Until Dino came clean about being in the mafia, she wouldn't let him see the reason _why_ they weren't for sale. Unicorns were a protected species and the Italian Ministry knew that her forest was a sanctuary for them and a full centaur herd. And one of the only herds of pegasus and thestrals that were trained in the entire country.

As it was, Dino decided to use Fon's visit as an excuse to tell her the truth.

"So you already know about the mafia."

"And Flames, though I never messed with it. I have enough problems without being dragged in."

"Which I am glad for, in a way," Fon piped up. I-Pin was curled against Harmony in her lap, almost like a kitten.

Dino thought about how to say this, but decided he might as well be blunt.

"I'm the Decimo of the Cavallone familigia," he said. He was glad to get it off his chest.

"And?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "I already knew you were mafia by the third time you visited and I saw your driver with a gun. Never mind that the background check I did on you came up with a few red flags I have for that sort of thing, though at least your family has a better reputation than the Vongola."

Dino sputtered at that. That was the first time someone had compared his smaller family to the Vongola and his came out as better.

"So... you're okay with this?"

"Fon told me about the Cosa Nostra the day he figured out I was Active. So far it's never come up because I never leave the ranch much, and it's not like I'm going to condemn you or your ancestors for doing what you needed to in order to survive. Sometimes the justice means doing what you believe is right, rather than relying on the same interpretation the so called 'government' has of it. I have a lot of respect for the Vongola's Primo, but none at all for those who came after save for the Ottavio. And the current leader is so full of shit that I doubt I could work with him. Being civil is the best I could do," said Harmony bluntly. Seeing his look, she sighed. "I don't care about the fact you're mafia or that you occasionally have to kill people who probably deserve it. So long as you never target innocents or civilians, we'll never have a problem."

"Actually the Cavallone has a bit of a reputation for going out of it's way to keep the civilians in their territory safe from all mafia activity if possible," said Fon.

Seeing Harmony's expression, Dino winced.

"I didn't even _want_ to be Decimo, but when a teacher like Reborn is sent to teach you how, it's either do it or be blown up," said Dino.

"I can confirm that bit. Reborn is almost impossible to say no to for various reasons," said Fon.

Dino didn't flinch when Harmony touched his face. Though he had thought about it.

"Besides, it's not like the whole secret society thing is _new_ to me after all. It just added another secret to the one I've been keeping since I was eleven."

"What?"

Harmony had an impish smile on her face. The fact Fon did as well said volumes and Dino wasn't sure he liked it.

She carefully picked up I-Pin who snuggled against her, without waking up.

"You think the Cosa Nostra is a big shock? I can top that and deal with others like it before breakfast and still go to work," she said, leading Dino to the paddocks.

She took him straight to the one barn Dino never went into. Or if he did, then the stables were usually _empty_ by the time he reached them.

They weren't empty now, and Dino was openly gaping at the sight before him.

There were pegasus in the stables.

"I'm a witch and I raise magical breeds on top of the normal ones I sold to you," said Harmony smiling.

Dino reached out to touch one of the wings along the side of a large auburn stallion. Feeling the feathers under his hand was a major shock and he almost felt faint.

"Magic is real?"

"Quest and his herd are actually unicorns, though I have a blanket spell on their horns so that they can come out in public. Not that they do it often, mind you, but at least they have the option," said Harmony smiling.

Dino was looking at all the pegasi in the stables, and noticed some odd ones near the back.

"What are these?" he asked, honestly curious. It was almost like Christmas morning when he was a kid, back when he still had that sort of excitement and wonder about the holiday.

Sure it was a big shock, but once you got over the surprise factor it was amazing!

Besides, it was hard to hate magic or be afraid of it when you had a pet like Enzo and lived with Reborn for several years.

"Thestrals. They're considered unlucky because only those who have seen death can actually _see_ them, but they're very useful. They can take you almost anywhere you want to go in half the time and they're quite loyal once you have them trained. Though they are strictly carnivorous and prefer fresh meat. The pegasus tolerate them because I feed them separately...most of the meat I buy goes to them."

Dino reached out to touch one, and it bumped it's odd fanged mouth against his hand. It seemed to like him a lot, despite how weird they looked.

He noticed a freezer nearby and picked out a steak, which had the one he was petting in love with him once he fed it.

"It's a little odd looking, but it's still a beautiful animal," said Dino honestly. Harmony beamed at him.

"I know, right? Just because it looks scary doesn't mean it's evil! I'm the only one who actually breeds them in Italy, let alone has a tame herd like this!" she said happily.

"Wait... didn't you say there were four herds?"

"The main one are the normal horses, the second one is the pegasus/thestral herd, the third one is the unicorn herd, but the fourth is one I don't really have control over. I mostly gave them a place to live and let them guard the unicorn and the abused animal herds on top of the forest area. I leave them alone and they don't attack me on sight if I happen to go into the forest. I could introduce you to the one that usually comes out to talk tomorrow morning."

"Talk?"

"The fourth herd is made up of centaurs," said Harmony.

"Wait, you mean the half-human, half-horse creature like the one that supposedly taught Herakles in the Greek myths? They're _real_?" said Dino excitedly.

He loved horses, so the idea of a centaur had always appealed to him.

"The ones I brought had a rough time with humans in England, mostly because they were treated like beasts and it pissed them off. They tolerate me because I let them control the forests and stay out of their business unless I have to. Sure their territory is a lot smaller than they had before, but it's a lot less aggravating since they don't have to deal with giant spiders on top of being so close to a magical school," said Harmony. "I'm sure Firenze wouldn't mind answering your questions, though be warned they are rather cryptic and tend to follow the guidance of the stars and planets a lot."

Dino looked excited at the idea and kissed Harmony on the cheek for showing him all this. He had to chuckle at the sleepy grumble of I-Pin who was still curled up against Harmony's neck.

Firenze found Dino's questions rather amusing, and openly approved of him.


	4. Chapter 4

Dino woke up and panicked for a moment when he didn't recognize where he was. Right up until he felt Harmony (thankfully clothed) curled up against him in the same bed.

 _Oh...right, I spent the night after she showed me what color her Flames were. And why Fon visits so often._

He would never admit to fainting, but odds were Reborn would find out anyway. His girlfriend was an Active Sky, one strong enough to pull Fon in.

And if she could attract and hold an Arcobaleno like Fon into her Sky, then there was a very real possibility she could hold the others. If there was one thing Reborn deserved after all the punches thrown at him, it was a Sky to call his own. Something Fon agreed with completely, even if he was planning to test the odd key that Harmony had given him.

Something about opening a door between a set point and a fluid one.

All Dino knew was that Fon had called from Hong Kong yesterday from the computer...and was now at the table for breakfast.

"While it was a bit disconcerting, mostly due to time changes, it worked like you said it should," reported Fon.

Harmony beamed.

"This means you can crash at my house for meals and I-Pin can stay here and still train, without anyone tracking you back to my house. Though if there are any kinks I want to know. I would rather not market these until they work properly every time."

Fon nodded in agreement.

"The fact that half of them are safety features designed to keep the user from getting killed by accident speaks well of your design. I could clearly see and hear into the house before stepping through and the one you set as a test just in case there was obstruction worked somewhat well. I could still push forward a little, but it did not let me through completely and I eventually bounced back."

"Good. I was hoping it would do that," said Harmony with relief.

"What keys?" asked Dino, clutching his coffee like a life line.

Fon held up a key ring, with three rather old fashioned keys on it.

"I've been working on a project in my spare time that would allow Fon or others to use these keys to go to preset points like hospitals or safe houses, without having to deal with people following them unless they allow it. I broke down the old spells used on vanishing cabinets and port keys and combined them into this working prototype. If it works, then I'll be making up what I've been spending on my ranch three times over, especially since all keys have to be blood-bonded to work."

"Blood bonded?" said Dino. "And what's a port key?"

"Port keys are barbaric way of transporting large groups from one place to the next," said Fon in disgust. Harmony wasn't the only one who loathed them. "They can be almost any item, and most Europeans use junk or trash which make them very dangerous to handle. Just touching one generally activates it, and you feel a hook to your navel and spin rapidly. They are quite uncomfortable to use and the idiots haven't bothered to try and make them more pleasant since someone figured out the spell to make them stable. To say nothing of how irritating Apparition is."

"You get used to it, though I am licensed to make international port keys. I had to get it in order to properly make the keys," said Harmony. "To be honest the only types of magical transportation that agree with me are brooms and horses. Hence why I was determined to make those keys a reality."

Dino looked at her.

"How do they work?"

"They have a preset destination. So far I have it set to three points. One is to test that the keys will not allow the user to go through if there is an obstruction or if it's not survivable such as being underwater or underground. The main one Fon used actually goes through a closet which would allow the user to immediately hide inside, while still operating as a normal closet should. The third goes into the centaur herd's area and they've agreed to keep an eye on it since we're mostly using it as a test so that the one with the key can see danger before they walk right into it. Once I have the system up and running it will be permanently dismantled, and the other end doesn't go anywhere near the main herd areas. It's mostly on the fringes with a few bored guards."

Dino looked appreciatively at the idea. It sounded beyond useful and allowed people to make a quick get away.

"What about the blood bond thing?"

"Well I've been buying the keys themselves from the goblins, and it's more of a security feature that will allow me to charge much more for them. After all, you wouldn't want your enemy to steal the key and use it to get to your family after they just escaped, would you?"

Dino nodded in agreement.

Reborn would love her paranoia.

"Could you install one in my manor? That way I wouldn't have to keep driving three hours to get here and I could visit more often. Plus it would allow you to work out any kinks," said Dino.

Harmony beamed at him.

"Of course, though I would have to install it personally and make a new key."

Fon hid a smile behind his sleeve. Dino had _other_ reasons for suggesting that, and it had little to do with helping her make her little project a reality. Ones he didn't mind encouraging. The Italian was very good for Harmony and he could feel her Sky being a lot happier for meeting him.

Though once the keys were fully working like Harmony wanted them to, he was leaving I-Pin on the ranch with her. The two of them interacted well and he had noticed a definite change in how his apprentice acted. She was calmer, and learned things a lot easier and with greater understanding after visiting with the older girl. And Harmony seemed to favor a more maternal approach to the younger child, which I-Pin easily reciprocated.

Besides, there was no way Fon was touching the terrors of puberty when I-Pin finally reached that point if he had someone else he could dump it on. He preferred not to touch that topic with a ten-meter pole if possible, especially if it involved _female_ troubles.

* * *

Dino was rather nervous. Not because Harmony was installing the runes on a random closet in the manor (he had already warned his people about it being a set Mist territory that allowed only trusted people to portal in, since he wasn't sure if anyone else knew about magic) and therefor was about to be known to most of his men...but because of what he had planned for later tonight.

Harmony had agreed to the date, unaware of his real plan. She actually loved spontaneous surprises, so long as they were the good kind.

He was planning to propose to her. They had been officially dating for a little over six months, and he knew she liked him. She had been leery of anything more than heavy make out sessions without some major signs of him being willing to make a long term commitment.

Considering the issues she had before in England, he could understand her reservations. That, and apparently her society disliked bastards even more than the mafia did and would only allow them to inherit only after a very long and almost impossible process to prove they deserved it.

Victorian values, as Harmony had blithely commented. It wasn't even for religious reasons like most of the Cosa Nostra (who were admittedly Catholic at the very least and on good terms with Rome), but more because of family magics.

He hoped she would take his proposal well. He knew that if he didn't make a move soon, odds were that someone else would. She was already making waves in the underworld without actually being present, and that was before people knew what she looked like.

Mostly because rumors were spreading the Eye of the Storm had finally harmonized with a Sky and people wanted to know who it was. Her anonymity was keeping her safe for now, as was the fact he kept his visits infrequent and quiet.

Fon did not tolerate people trying to follow him and took out any he found outside China with extreme prejudice. And the magic on the key scrambled any electronic trackers, which was how he was now keeping in contact with his Sky for the past two weeks.

Harmony was mostly using Dino's home as a dry run to see if she could recreate her system outside an area with natural ambient magic (which she anchored her wards into, making them many times stronger than wizards of Dumbledore's caliber) and in a purely mundane environment.

If she could, then she would know she had a working prototype to use and sell. And with the increasing terrorist attacks in the UK, such things would more than sell and she would be able to name her price.

Harmony smiled as Dino helped her out of the car, and when she found the best spot to place the anchoring runes, she went to work. Dino was openly fascinated with the entire process. He asked intelligent questions where he could and Harmony answered him without thinking.

And once she finished (with Fon testing that it was working with the new key once given the signal, before returning to the ranch with a different one) she borrowed one of his many rooms to shower and change.

Most of his men were giving her approving looks, and many of those close to Dino, especially Romario knew what he had planned for tonight.

They could do far worse with a woman like Harmony as the boss' wife. At least she didn't skirt away from hard work or look down on them for what they sometimes had to do.

Dino once again had a bit of trouble breathing for a few moments seeing Harmony dolled up. She didn't do it often, preferring to work with her horses, but when she did... it was a major difference.

He had no doubt that if he dared to take her to the mafia balls she would have every eye on her within seconds.

He wasn't stupid enough to take her to one until he knew for certain she would agree to marrying him though. Too much risk of some idiot trying to poach her for himself. The fact Squalo _and_ Reborn made comments about that was alarming enough.

Their dinner went fantastically. There were no idiots after him or his date, the food was excellent and the wine made everything a little more loose than normal. He had noticed long ago that Harmony had a sort of 'system' in place for positive physical affection. It had taken him three months before she trusted him in her personal space enough that he could do more than a light hug.

So naturally when dessert came around, Harmony was completely off guard when he got on one knee and asked her.

He took the kiss she gave him as a positive sign...and had to blush a little at the cheers from the other diners.

* * *

Reborn's visit was almost expected, though he clearly hadn't anticipated Fon being there as well.

"I heard a rumor you finally proposed to the ranch girl," he said mildly, staring at Fon oddly. Mostly to discern the Storm's presence there.

"Not a rumor and it's about time. They've been dancing around each other for months," said Fon.

"Why are you here?"

Fon made a rather odd face, for him.

"Harmony is taking I-Pin out for a girl's day out, as she called it and I would rather visit with her fiancee than get stuck carrying the inevitable bags," said Fon.

"Isn't the ranch over three hours from the manor?"

"Harmony put in a new system involving some weird Mist keys. Allows only those bonded to the items in question to go from one place to another so long as the anchoring point is set up," said Dino. "Fon has been acting as her test subject so she can prove proof of concept before she patents it."

She was already underway with talks with the goblins about the patents...and had hired Mammon to help with the fees and other legal details so she didn't get screwed over in some way. The Mist was expensive, but knew what they were doing. The fact Harmony was paying the miser in hard gold had put her in the Mist's favor.

That, and Harmony agreed to call Mammon first for any possible tricks the Ministry tried to gain control of the new system and that they were free to gouge the idiots out of their gold as well. Most wizards wouldn't know the difference between Mist illusions and magic, not that it made a difference because Mammon was actually a trained magical.

They had a wand, but they rarely if ever used it anymore.

Reborn stared hard at Fon for some reason, and the Storm openly rolled his eyes before he let his Flame out a little. Not enough to alarm others, but enough that Reborn could feel it properly.

Seeing the Sun's eyebrows shoot up in surprise made the whole thing worth it.

"You _harmonized_ with someone?"

"Her name is both fitting and ironic for multiple reasons," said Fon evenly. "Dino had no idea until I mentioned it."

Reborn was openly surprised and was almost gaping. Almost.

"You mean to tell me the horse girl is an Active Sky strong enough to pull _you_ in? How did I miss that?"

"She's really, really good at hiding what she is. And you weren't looking for an active Flame in a civilian," said Dino. He had the same reaction.

"...Does she have room in her Sky for more?" asked Reborn. He wasn't going to dare to hope. Though anyone who could pull Fon it might have the strength to take him in as well.

Fon smiled.

"I'm the only Guardian she has...all other bonds were barely formed at best and she had no idea what they were. Though her last possible Storm was foolish enough to break it himself."

If Fon ever met this "Ron Weasley", he was going to have more than words for hurting his Sky as badly as that fool did. Harmony had recovered admirably thanks to the proper bond she had with Fon, but the emotional pain of his betrayal and the way he openly dismissed her as a female still stung. Their friendship was tentative at best for now, and that was still up in the air.

Still the fact remained that Reborn was feeling _hope_ for the first time in years. Not even the vaulted Vongola Skies could hope to bring him in as a Guardian. And while he was still a bit leery of Harmony's past, the chance she could give him the same Guardian bond she had with Fon was enough for him to at least try.

A week later Reborn made a visit to the Marauder's Ranch alone. Fon was off on assignment, and I-Pin was busy feeding the unicorns and the pegasus.

Harmony looked at him with a gentle smile.

"You want the same bond Fon has, don't you?"

"If it's possible, yes," admitted Reborn.

Harmony allowed her Flames to fill the room, but did not push them anywhere near Reborn. It was a very nice change of pace, since most Skies tried to use blunt force to convince Flames into being Guardians. He let his own iron control over his Sun Flame to loosen, allowing them to 'test the waters' so to speak.

The Sky didn't rebuff him, nor did it try to force dominance. Instead it naturally made way for his Flames to join in the gentle dance...and Reborn openly gasped as he felt the bond connect to his soul.

It was small, and not fully formed, but it was stronger than most would expect. The feeling of peace and being at home was a relief. Like a weight had been removed from his shoulders that he never knew was there. The hug was a nice bonus.

"Welcome home, Reborn," she said gently.

He leaned into her hold, his head against her neck. Without even realizing it he was relaxing to the point he was out cold.

Sometimes there were perks to being cursed so small.


	5. Chapter 5

The news that Reborn had found a Sky hit the underworld like a brick to the face. That someone was strong enough, compatible enough to form a proper Guardian bond with him and still remain anonymous was big news.

Even more shocking was the fact Reborn was able to give anyone trying to use him to track down his Sky the slip with contemptible ease (and this included the Vongola, to their shock) was even more surprising. Not even the World's Greatest Hit Man should be able to give that many people the slip.

The news that the Cavallone's Decimo was getting married to a civilian was barely a blip on the radar compared to Reborn having a Sky. One, Reborn hinted, was also bonded to Fon as their Storm.

It wouldn't be years later that anyone found out who Reborn _and_ Fon's Sky was and that she had gone completely unnoticed by anyone save for those already in the know.

While the wedding was beautiful (and no one shocked to see Reborn there, as Dino _was_ his student) it was the honeymoon that would send even more major ripples in the underworld's gossip network.

* * *

"This place is beautiful!" said Harmony with open appreciation. Dino had chosen Mafia Land for their honeymoon for multiple reasons.

One, it was declared neutral territory so even his own enemies wouldn't be allowed to bother them openly. Two, it gave his allies and the other families a chance to see him with his new wife and know she was part of his Familigia now, and therefor protected. Three, it was a beautiful place to visit and gave him plenty of chances to see Harmony in a swimsuit.

But the biggest reason they were going to Mafia Land was because of one person.

Colonello, the Rain Arcobaleno.

Fon was a shock, Reborn was a test, but if she could bond with Colonello then it would have major implications. That, and the Rain was stuck in a rut anyway and would probably not mind spending full time in the ranch as her main bodyguard. The fact she lived in Italy and that meant he had more chances to see Lal Mirch was just bonus.

Dino smiled at her enthusiasm and didn't mind that I-Pin was joining them. She would be staying with Romario and his Guardians, since Fon was still trying to keep a low profile. The more people saw him around Harmony, the easier it would be to realize she was a Sky. Reborn had reluctantly agreed to keep his distance save for when he visited via the keys for the same reason.

He loved the things, even if he had to bleed on them to activate them. The fact no one else would be able to use them unless they shared his blood was also a big factor.

Harmony had high hopes that the system would be approved and go into production within the next five years... but the magical society was slow to change.

It would likely take using her unwanted fame to get it properly off the ground and have to deal with the inevitable idiots that would come after her.

What Dino was really looking forward to was tonight. He knew Harmony had gone on a minor shopping spree the day before the wedding just for this.

"So... do we visit Colonello first or do we wait?"

"Explore first, then we visit Colonello in the morning. Or we wait a few days," said Harmony firmly. Dino wasn't the only one looking forward to tonight.

Dino would take one look at the negligee she had on and could only say one thing.

"Woof."

Harmony snickered openly at that.

* * *

Colonello felt the Cavallone Sky before he saw him. The kid had a good handle on his Flames, but the Rain had been warned ahead by Reborn that he was coming to visit.

Something about the kid's wife having an offer he might be interested in.

He would openly admit to being bored out of his skull. Even the yearly invasion failed to get more of a 'meh' from him these days.

So when he felt Harmony's Sky lingering, but not openly pressuring him like most generally tried at some point, he allowed his Rain to come out and play.

The effect was immediate. His Rain seemed to gleefully play with her Sky, and the two Flames were practically giddy.

"What the hell is that, kora?!" he said after a moment, almost Flame Drunk. It wasn't the usual pain associated with a failed Harmony bond, but it felt warm like a firm hug from a comrade after a hard battle that had been won.

Harmony shrugged.

"Reborn said it felt like sunlight dancing off his skin while he was relaxing when it happened, and Fon claimed his felt like a warrior finding a worthy master," said Harmony.

"...More like a strong hug from a comrade in arms after a difficult battle being won," said Colonello after a moment. It was nice, and it made him smile. "Reborn said something about an offer, kora?"

He didn't know if this was a proper harmony bond, but if it wasn't the offer she had in mind would have had him checking it out anyway.

While he wasn't much for horses, the chance to be closer to where Lal was and the fact she was openly planning to join him in his old morning exercises before she went to work on the horses won a lot of favor.

Harmony didn't mind waking up early, but after she took care of the horses (which was sped up considerable with the help of magic and a few discreet house elves who kept the place tidy) she had a lot of free time on her hands. Learning martial arts had been more to kill time on top of learning to defend herself without magic.

That...and the fact she took to the obstacle course Colonello already had set up with wild glee and came out muddy, but openly laughing with delight made him grin. This was a woman he could work with, even as an odd farmhand.

To be honest the idea of settling down on a ranch hadn't even occurred to him, though his instincts all but demanded he protect his new Sky.

Finding out Harmony had a very pragmatic personality made the choice even easier. At the very least it wouldn't be the same old, same old like he was stuck in and he would be closer to Lal as a bonus.

* * *

Lal Mirch descended on the Marauder's Ranch one morning a full month after Colonello officially ended his contract on Mafia Land. The fact it took so long for word of him leaving what she considered a cushy job for a permanent bodyguard position (paid for by the Cavallone, or she assumed so) was a hard idea to swallow. That she saw him working around the horses and tossing them hay and the occasional apple or other snack was an odd sight.

"You look ridiculous."

Gone was the old camo outfit that was so reminiscent of his time spent in COMSUBIN. Instead he wore a comfortable shirt and some jeans, though he kept his boots and bandanna. His rifle was set a small distance away, though still within easy reach considering he was pretty fast on his feet and damn hard to hit. She did see he kept his combat knife on hand though.

"Good to see you too," he said, tossing another bail over the fence. He had been given official approval from Quest, though the fact unicorns did exist had thrown him for a loop for a solid hour.

Nearby I-Pin was bringing another barrel of apples, since she could carry that much thanks to her training.

"Why did you leave? You had a good job, and I doubt the Cavallone could possibly pay you more than it did!"

Colonello paused in what he was doing to look at her incredulous.

"You really think I cared about the money? I was bored out of my mind working security and even the invasion got so dull I could have dealt with it in my sleep! Sure working here wasn't what I expected, but at least it's something different and the boss actually joins in on my old morning exercises with the kid! I'm _old_ Lal, and it was time for something new!" said Colonello almost sharply.

Seeing Lal taken aback by the annoyance in his voice, she tried to rally herself.

"But a civilian?"

Colonello laughed hollowly.

"That girl is no more a civilian than we were when we were in COMSUBIN, though at least we _chose_ to be soldiers," said Colonello flatly. "She actually reminds me of a younger you, a little bit."

That threw Lal for a loop.

The fact remained Colonello was DONE with Mafia Land. It was fun while it lasted, but working at the ranch had relieved a lot of pressure he didn't know was on his shoulders.

He was actually _enjoying_ himself for the first time in years, and Harmony was considering opening a training facility designed by Colonello personally so he could push more of the less connected mafioso through his training and obstacle courses.

It wasn't that he hated the idiots who usually got dumped on him, but he disliked the way they were all pampered morons who bitched and whined about getting dirty or actually learning something useful.

Harmony waited for Lal to leave before she approached him.

"You alright?"

Colonello was silent, though he did accept the lift up Falco gave him so he could sit on the fence. Harmony and his bird had gotten along faster than anything he had ever seen, and that was before her owl Hedwig arrived.

"I thought she would understand why I left, much less end my contract."

The way she acted and spoke like he had done something to offend her stung a little. Just because he looked two didn't mean he felt that way. He was technically in his fifties at least.

Harmony said nothing, just sat next to him.

"She's the one you're in love with, isn't she?"

"Yeah. I've loved her for years, but she always yells at me for it. I've tried everything I could think of and still nothing," said Colonello slumping.

"I think it's time you made a decision about your relationship. Give her one last chance to reciprocate before you say enough. Sometimes you need to let something go before you realize what you have," said Harmony gently.

Like her letting go of her old life. She didn't look back on it with any fondness at all.

Colonello was quiet, though he did lean on her for a bit.

Harmony was right... he had tried to get her attention for several decades and she never gave him a sign saying she loved him back. He had taken this curse for her, without even a second thought and still she didn't reciprocate.

It would hurt, but it was more in line with the pain of ripping off a band aid than the lingering, sharp pain of a broken limb.

At least he knew Harmony would stay by his side regardless of his decision.

She let him have a few more minutes to himself before they got back to work.

* * *

"Wait, you want to take me to a mafia ball?" said Harmony, startled.

"It's more of a chance to talk with others, and possibly make alliances. There's not much real dancing, though the food is always good," said Dino, kissing his wife's knuckles.

Thanks to the key system (which was slowly but surely gaining momentum especially among those who disliked port keys and apparition) Harmony was able to go between the ranch and Dino's manor, though only Romario had the opposite key to the ranch so he could collect his boss.

Most days Dino stayed over in her home, though she did spend a lot of time sleeping in the bed in the manor. Generally Colonello crashed wherever, though he didn't mind sharing with I-Pin and Fon. It wasn't like a normal bed couldn't hold the three of them.

"...You just want to show me off to the other families don't you?"

Dino looked at her seriously.

"I really, _really_ want to hammer it in to those other hussies that I'm taken and that you're a million times better than anything they could come up with."

"...If the Vongola are there I'll attempt civility, but I really dislike the current generation. And the less said about that jackass who runs CEDEF, the better," she said bluntly.

She might have been civil with Iemitsu Sawada...right up until she heard the fact he left his wife and son alone for _years_ at a time, thinking ignorance was safer than knowing the truth. The man was living it up in Italy while his poor wife had to raise her son alone with limited to no support, and even when he DID visit he was always with his wife and never spent any real time with his child.

He was the epitome of a barely acceptable deadbeat father, and that pissed her off.

And Harmony had a major issue with Timoteo, who reminded her far too much like Dumbledore at his worst. Anyone who gave off the same vibe as that old goat couldn't be trusted in her mind.

"Hmm... a night out with my clumsy but well meaning husband and official bodyguard, or a night in where no one would disturb us for hours..." she said with a wicked hint. Dino's breath hitched at the implications.

No matter what happened, Harmony always knew just how to turn him on. And he loved it.

So Dino tried another tactic.

"You could get a new dress and spend hours teasing me with it while we're there so I could have the fun of taking it off when we get home," he suggested, almost eagerly.

Hell, he'd even convince Reborn to help her. While Harmony was good at picking out clothes (which she almost never did), Reborn was a _master_ at it. He'd probably enjoy the chance to fluster his old student with his wife.

Scratch that, he'd definitely enjoy it.

Harmony's eyes glinted at the idea.

"Tempting..."

"I will take off two days from work and spend them entirely with you," said Dino.

"Deal," said Harmony.

She knew how hard it was for Dino to take time off, though he always made it a point to see his wife at least twice a day even if he had go out of his way to do it. And if he went away for a few days, he always made up for it with pampering her as much as she allowed him to.

The sheer love he had for her made her head spin.


	6. Chapter 6

Reborn accepted the 'suggestion' from his Sky to make Dino have great difficulty paying attention to anything but his wife during the so-called ball.

Reborn considered it good training for his old student in how to handle such an interesting distraction. Not that he could blame Dino... Harmony was quite the looker even when she wasn't dressed up and actually prepped for these things. There was something magnetic about her that demanded you pay attention, almost like a Queen walking among peasants.

And that was long before Sky Attraction ever came into play.

When she actually took the time to get dressed up (which included Reborn picking out the outfit) and get her hair done... the change was _massive_.

If he weren't cursed and older than her, he wouldn't have hesitated to try and go after her.

Dino was one lucky bastard.

Which was something Reborn found great amusement in hearing repeated over and over by every mafioso that got a good look at Dino's "civilian" wife, including those who were married and even had their spouses within hearing distance. Usually followed by a slap.

Dino once he got over the shock of seeing her like that, made a point of keeping his arm around her waist. Partly to make it clear she was _his_ wife, but also because he honestly had trouble keeping his hands _off_ her.

She didn't seem to mind. Far from it.

The dress in question left very little to the imagination while covering more than the slinky outfits that most of the women were wearing. Some barely covered anything at all.

Harmony's silver-white outfit, vibrant dark red hair done up in an elegant bun made of braids...courtesy of an amused Fon who wanted in on what he considered a massive prank on the Italians, he was watching from the ceiling at the way the mafioso were all stopping and staring at her with unabashed interest... the simple yet elegant necklace made of white gold shaped like jasmine flowers, her flat sandals and her aura alone made her look like something out of the old myths about love goddesses.

Freya was the first that came to mind when Reborn first saw the effect. Or possibly Aphrodite.

Dino looked rather underdressed compared to her, though it was clear he can and would fight anyone who tried to hit on her.

Reborn found it hilarious that most of the ball was spent staring at Harmony, rather than the usual going's on.

And then she did something that really had him laughing... in between wanting to bang his head against the nearest surface because he _was_ her Sun after all.

He had no idea the Varia had been invited or that Belphegor, the insane Storm Officer, had come out of boredom.

Harmony actually did a double take when she saw the lazy self-proclaimed "Prince", before she made a beeline straight for him.

The curtsy was a bit of a surprise, but not as much as what she actually SAID to him.

"Greetings Prince Raphael. I must admit I wasn't expecting to see the second prince of Romania's royal family in the Varia of all places."

Belphegor actually _stiffened_ when she said that name.

"How do you know the Prince's birth name, horse queen?" demanded Belphegor, almost drawing his knife. The only reason he hadn't was because she had shown him the proper respect according to royalty.

Though Reborn had to raise an eyebrow at the title he gave her. From what he understood of the brat, Belphegor considered almost everyone peasants.

Harmony smirked and lifted her bangs up for a moment.

"As for how I know your original name, blame that arrogant ass Rasiel. The fool was more balls than brains."

Belphegor actually hissed at her, like an angry cat.

"Rasiel is _dead_."

"Not as much as you would think, unfortunately. I ran into him in a certain Scottish school you may have heard of and the last I saw of him he was in Durmstrang. That fool Karkaroff was stupid enough to bring him, even if he wasn't selected as Champion. Of course he wasn't so smug when he attempted to court me only to find my foot firmly planted between his balls," she said bluntly.

Belphegor stared at her for a moment, before an evil smile came upon his face.

"Ushishishi... I like you, Horse Queen."

"At least you clearly have more brains than that fool of a brother of yours. Otherwise I highly doubt you would have risen to such a prestigious position among the true warriors of the mafia. Though I must admit, the Varia seems to be the only _good_ thing about the Vongola. CEDEF is just pathetic and the main family should have given over the reigns when they still had heirs to spare," said Harmony blithely, causing Dino to openly choke on his drink.

He wasn't the only one.

"Ushishishi! The boss would _love_ meeting you _,_ Horse Queen."

"Squalo has said the same," admitted Harmony. "He still can't drink me under the table though. Want any blackmail of the last time he tried?"

"Ushishishishi!"

Belphegor was too busy laughing, but he still nodded eagerly.

Dino stared at his wife in disbelief.

"You get along way too well with the Varia."

Squalo was an oddity, but the fact she was openly exchanging numbers with the Ripper Prince was very worrying. Fortunately he didn't seem to have any romantic interest in her, though from the sound of it he was from the magical enclaves like Harmony was.

"By the way, I have a herd of thestrals and their much more pleasant equine cousins. You're free to visit and feed them sometime, though I don't know if they will try to nibble on you considering I've heard about your habits."

The fact Belphegor looked openly interested at the offer did not bode well for Dino's mellow.

At least the psychotic teen actually seemed to _like_ his wife, rather than the bloodthirsty disdain he held for most.

Of course the night didn't end there.

Harmony had made it clear about her feelings for Timoteo of the Vongola, and it became very obvious when the man decided he wanted to meet the new wife of the Cavallone Decimo.

Her frosty, yet civil demeanor was so cold Dino would swear he saw ice cubes forming in his drink.

Timoteo clearly didn't know how to handle that, so he attempted to use a little of his Sky Flame to ease the tension.

Only to be slapped down without hesitation by a less than amused Dino.

Dino wasn't about to piss off the Vongola... that would be suicide, plain and simple. However he wasn't about to let the old man try to get his way simply by flaring his Flames like that.

He didn't have much exposure to the Ninth Vongola Boss, but if this was how he handled dissent then Dino didn't blame Xanxus one bit for rebelling like he did.

And the way his Guardians reacted to the rebuff from Dino said volumes of how overly-comfortable they were about using their position as the Ninth's Guardians to get their point across. To say nothing of how arrogant their attitudes were.

It really pissed him off.

Without even thinking about it, Dino and Harmony meandered back to the Varia table and gave the Vongola main family a look of subtle disgust.

Squalo didn't even bat an eye when Dino ordered a shot of whiskey.

"I see you've run into the bastard."

"I take back everything I might have thought about Xanxus' rebellion and replace it with I'm cutting all ties to the Vongola until they get a new Don," said Dino flatly.

Squalo blinked and openly stared at him.

"What the fuck did he do to piss you off that much?"

"That old man flared his Sky at Harmony and his Guardians looked pissed that I rebuffed it before it came anywhere near her. I thought it was bad memories that made her dislike him so much, but maybe she had a better read on him than I did," said Dino angrily. "If he thinks it's acceptable to flare at a civilian in front of an ally in a public gathering like this..."

The implications of such arrogance were not pleasant.

"...So if the Boss were ever brought back and were to try and claim the Decimo title from Federico..." said Squalo.

"Federico is a womanizing ass with no actual Guardians. And while Xanxus was a bit of a prick from what I remember of him, at least he's competent and actually earned that arrogance, rather than have everything handed to him on a silver platter," said Dino. "However if the Ninth tries to pull in an heir from the main branch, then I would have to assess what the other one is like first before I even considered giving my backing."

Dino was one of the few who remembered that every leader since the Primo's time came from a branch family, while the Primo settled in another country under a new name with his Guardians. Which meant there might be an heir from the original leader's line in hiding.

If Timoteo lost Federico, there was a chance he might try to activate the hidden heir rather than free Xanxus. Dino would rather meet with them personally first to get a feel of their personality before he made a decision on who to back in the event that there was contention over the Decimo title.

Squalo stared at him for a moment, before knocking back his drink.

"Voi. You're still an idiot, but I can at least respect your reasoning. That wife of yours has been good for you," said Squalo finally.

"Just so you know, if he does activate a possible heir from the main branch and he might prove competent, then I will have to assume neutrality on the matter. Though I will step in to try and keep everyone alive," said Dino.

"Fair enough," said Squalo evenly.

Harmony decided to sit on Dino's lap, effectively putting all his attention firmly on her.

"I don't know about you, but this party has become very boring."

Dino's grin said volumes.

"Go you two love birds," said Squalo, looking ready to gag.

"Bye Squalo! Try not to skewer Belphegor too much when you see what he has," said Harmony cheerfully.

"Voi! What does that mean?!" said Squalo horrified.

Belphegor was looking at his phone and snickering like the evil little brat he was at what he was watching. He took one look at Squalo and those snickers got ten times worse.

Squalo didn't need to see the entire thing to know what Belphegor had...and was likely selling to his partner Mammon.

"VOI! GIVE ME THAT PHONE YOU BRAT!"

"Ushishishi... make me shark breath!" said Belphegor, playing keep away and cackling wildly.

Reborn and Fon enjoyed the chaos a little before heading back to the car. Colonello was already waiting.

"What did you share with the Varia Storm anyway?" asked Reborn.

"Last time we went to a bar Squalo tried to trump me in a drinking contest and ended up singing very badly to a karaoke machine. He was so drunk he didn't even realize Dino and I were recording him singing Lady Gaga's _Poker Face_."

Dead silence followed before the Arcobaleno started laughing their ass off or discreetly snickering.

Dino was grinning and openly laughing at the memory.

Best. Night. Out. Ever.

And even if Squalo got the video from Belphegor, the Prince could still get another one since he had exchanged numbers with Harmony.

As soon as they were back in the Cavallone mansion, Dino swept Harmony up in his arms to the open amusement of his men. It was pretty obvious what he was planning.

"Now, I believe there was a side bet about getting that off?" he said with an open grin and a kiss.

* * *

Harmony thought her peaceful days would last for a long time. Sadly, it seemed her past would not let her go as easily as she would have wished.

The first words out of her mouth when she saw them was...

"What the bloody hell are you people doing in _my_ ranch?!" she snarled.

She recognized several of the Order, and wanted nothing to do with any of them.

All at once, the idiots started talking about her shirking her duty and leaving them. Harmony was not impressed by any of them, and her hidden watchers less so. None of the idiots even realized that Colonello, Fon and Dino were there. (I-Pin had been sent to the Cavallone mansion for safety.)

Seeing the idiot red head grab her arm, Dino had enough. He stalked past the idiots, shoved red off Harmony and wrapped his arm around her waist with a possessive growl.

"Hands off my _wife_ , you bastard. I don't know how you got past the defenses of the house, but even I can see you're not welcome here," said Dino with a glare.

That set the Order off. The fact Harmony didn't dispute it said even more. In fact the brunette (who could have been a major looker if she bothered to tame that mane) took note of the ring on Harmony's right hand and loudly pointed it out to the others.

Dino hugged his wife tighter.

"If this was what you had to deal with England, then I don't blame you for leaving or not speaking about it."

"Yes, well these idiots are particularly dense and quick to kiss the wrinkled old arse of a foolish old goat who expects a mere teenager to overcome decades of experience with _love_ of all things," said Harmony derisively. "Did you people really think I would be stupid enough to stick around with Sirius dead and a death sentence hanging over my head in the form of a prophecy of a drunkard?"

"But Dumbledore..." started Hermione, only to be cut short by Harmony's disgusted eye roll.

"Dumbledore is still _human_ , regardless of how much he's made himself out to be the next coming of bloody _Merlin_. Honestly Granger, you know what my grades were like back then. Do you really believe someone like me could defeat Voldemort in a one on one duel when he's got far more experience than I do when it comes to magic?! Never mind whatever foul nonsense he came up with just to avoid death!"

Hermione's mouth snapped shut. Because if there was one thing she could never deal with, it was pure logic being thrown in her face. It was how Harmony generally cut her friend's ego down to a more manageable size years ago.

"We need you to lead us," said Ron.

Dino glared at him.

"Like hell am I letting my wife go anywhere near a war. Especially since she's hasn't been feeling well lately," said Dino flatly.

Dino was a Sunny Sky, and years with Reborn had fine tuned his Sun Flame. Which meant he had some major suspicions why Harmony had been feeling off recently. It was still far too early to tell quite yet, but if he was right then any chance they had of convincing her to fight in their battles would die before they even attempted to drag her back in.

"What's going on here, kora?" demanded Colonello, making it look like he just came back from tending the horses.

"It would seem we've come to a rather unexpected gathering," said Fon serenely, I-Pin running up to Harmony and jumping into the older girl's arms.

They couldn't tell it from the fact she was squinting so much, but I-Pin was glaring at them all and fully prepared with fresh gyoza buns from Fon.

"Really Potter? Dragging children into your screwed up life?" sneered Ron.

"Huh... so that's what your old name was," said Dino. She never really bothered to tell him, and he was happy just to call her Harmony.

"Actually, _Ronald_ , the two with the pacifiers aren't children. They're cursed. But that doesn't mean Fon can't kick your ass for being such an insensitive bastard. And Colonello can take any of you idiots down even before he breaks out his favorite weapons," said Harmony coldly.

Fon stiffened, before he narrowed his eyes at the red head closest to Harmony.

"This is the fool who hurt you so badly before you left? The one who broke the bond?" he asked bluntly.

Harmony said nothing, but nodded.

"Oh good. I've been meaning to have a...chat...with the fool who hurt you so much," said Fon darkly.

He was quick, and grabbed Ron by the collar, dragging him off into the distance.

The sound of a garbled scream was quickly followed by terrified silence.

Fon walked back with a serene...and slightly disturbing smile on his face.

"...You didn't shove him up the ass of any of the animals did you?" asked Dino slightly wary of that smile.

Fon faltered.

"Of course not. I know Harmony treasures her charges like she would her children. I shoved it up his own, since he seems to have it up there regularly anyway."

Harmony couldn't hold back... she was laughing, hard.

"That is absolutely perfect. Thank you Fon," she said smiling so hard it almost hurt.


	7. Chapter 7

Harmony couldn't make it a full day without throwing up. After seeing what Fon did to Ron (which still had her smiling so wide it almost hurt and would likely be fueling her patronus charm for a very long time) the Order had left, not wanting to challenge anyone capable of literally shoving someone's head up their ass, tiny size or not.

Never mind the fact Fon used several pressure points to render Ron impotent for the rest of his life, since it was unlikely the magicals would know how to reverse it.

Though now that they knew where she was, she was reluctant to spend the night in the house any more. Not until their war was over with permanently.

She lost enough, thank you. And if they expected her to martyr herself for their ungrateful asses, they had another thing coming. Unlike Dumbledore, she didn't have a thing for giving people a second chance if they were unwilling to get off their ass and _do_ something about it.

Dino held back her hair, which was in it's usual pony tail (something that had always made him laugh) as she threw up what little she had eaten for breakfast.

"I think I have a stomach bug. I can't seem to keep anything down."

Dino wrapped his arms around her waist, letting his Sun Flames gently curl around her... his eyes widened quite a bit when he realized what he was feeling back from them.

"I don't think it's a stomach bug," he said slowly, his a little shaky.

Harmony blinked at that.

"Well then what is it?"

"I'm calling Reborn. He's better at this sort of thing than I am," said Dino quickly. And as his Sky, Reborn had made her health his priority.

Within an hour, Reborn was coming through the portal and checking on Harmony's health. His eyebrows went up, silently confirming Dino's suspicions.

"You're pregnant. Definitely several weeks along, if not a month and a half," said Reborn.

There was the sound of a crash from outside as Colonello tripped on something. He was quickly joined by Fon and I-Pin.

"You sure about that?" asked Colonello.

"Positive. They have been going at it like rabbits since they were married after all, and I highly doubt stupid Dino bothered to remember protection since he got hitched," said Reborn flatly.

"Well that explains why I can't keep anything down," she said with relief.

Dino kissed the top of her head. Romario was going to be pleased, and so would the rest of the family. Harmony being pregnant meant they would soon have an heir, and this was before they found out she was a Sky as well.

It was a commonly accepted fact that when female Skies, especially ones as strong as Harmony was, had children then the odds of that child being a Sky skyrocketed into almost near certainty. It was an almost guarantee when the father was a Sky as well.

"You do realize this means you'll have to move into the manor, once it's confirmed," said Fon.

"Until I grow so big that I have to waddle, I'm going to keep working. I'd go stir crazy otherwise," said Harmony flatly. "Besides after I upgraded the wards to keep magicals out without permission, it's safer here than it is there. Dino isn't without his enemies and people are still operating under the mistaken impression I'm a civilian who's only in the know because I married him."

"She has a point," said Colonello reluctantly. "She's more or less out of the way here and very few know where she lives. And thanks to that Mist barrier of Mammon's, only those invited can see the ranch at all."

Mammon had installed it at Harmony's request to keep the idiots from England from bothering her a second time after the others threw them all out. The price was surprisingly cheap... even if it cost Squalo a lot of dignity.

Apparently the video of the Rain singing _Bad Romance_ after yet another night out drinking was more than enough to pay off the cackling Mist. He claimed he didn't like Lady Gaga, yet he always chose those songs when it came to karaoke while drunk.

It was something of an inside joke, even if Squalo almost skewered Belphegor when the Prince got his hands on the man's phone and changed all the songs to Lady Gaga songs...and proceeded to dial him from different phones at the worst times to piss him off.

Harmony was now Belphegor's second favorite person next to Mammon.

I-Pin looked confused...until Fon patiently explained it to her. Then she squealed and hugged Harmony around the arm, careful not to jostle the stomach. Harmony picked the little one up and I-Pin settled around her neck, hugging her tightly.

By this point I-Pin considered Harmony a mother figure, something the girl openly encouraged. The little one loved the ranch (especially the unicorns, which she never got tired of) and the fact Fon trained her in the mornings and still let her live with Harmony. Though he did make a point to seal her special technique, as it could harm the horses which would have devastated her.

"I want to celebrate, but that would mean risking people finding out about her condition or the fact she has you three," said Dino.

"I completely agree, and she's banned from any alcohol until the sprog pop out," said Colonello with sympathy.

"For all you know it could be twins. I _am_ related to the Weasleys after all," deadpanned Harmony. "And god only knows what that woman would have put in my food, expecting me to marry one of her sons because they were practically the only family I had before now."

 _That_ had Dino and Reborn on her in a flash, which had her rolling her eyes.

Overprotective idiots.

"Too soon to tell, but anything they added would have been gone a long time ago since you left five years ago," said Reborn.

"And I can't take any purgative draughts because they run the high risk of purging _everything_ from the body," said Harmony in annoyance.

Still, the day was rather happy...even if Harmony had trouble keeping anything down.

Eating was going to be a hit or miss, though she quickly learned raw fish set it off, as did the smell of too much garlic. Apples seemed to settle it though, which didn't surprise her overly much.

* * *

Within a month, Harmony was very twitchy. Everyone was acting like total mother hens, save for I-Pin who believed Harmony was strong enough to handle _anything_ like her teacher.

Finally after seeing _Reborn_ attempt to coddle her a little too much while in cosplay, her patience snapped. She needed to run before she was driven crazy.

So she slipped out of the house and into the pegasus stables. Between the barn door and the outer ones where the horses were allowed to wander freely (they knew to return to their stables before dark thanks to the centaurs translating for her) where Harmony had been was now a magnificent black unicorn.

Within moments she was taking off at a gallop before taking flight. Thanks to Sky Flames, she could literally run on the air without the need for wings.

It felt like pure freedom, and she felt much more relaxed. It didn't take much for the others in her herd to take flight with her, including the Thestrals.

She whinnied, and took to swooping dives.

Seeing Dino looked around in a panic for his missing pregnant wife (likely alerted by Reborn and the others) she came to a smooth landing and looked at him with open mischief in mind.

It wasn't until too late that he saw the water trough kicked over, hitting his pockets.

He yelped as his turtle Enzo was drenched and began absorbing the water, only to begin growing larger.

Harmony always found the odd creature which was technically Leon's child hilarious. That and she found it amusing to pour a bottle of water on him when Dino wasn't looking. He was cute when he was flustered.

Dino managed to knock his pet into the paddocks and gave the odd unicorn an odd look. Especially when she started nibbling in his pockets for treats.

She knew he liked to carry apples since he married her. Especially since she became pregnant, since they helped her stomach. She was particularly fond of the tart green ones.

"Easy girl," he said soothingly. He chuckled when the mare nipped at his hair.

He looked around for Harmony. This was right up her alley, and he wasn't oblivious to the fact she liked to fluster him through Enzo.

He was worried... the last thing he wanted was for her to lose their child from a kick from a horse.

Never mind that he had never seen _any_ of her charges even look like they were about to rear up at her.

So he was quite surprised when Fon hopped up onto the fence, looked the horse in the eye and openly relaxed.

"There you are Harmony. You gave us all a fright."

Harmony whinnied and flicked Fon on the nose with her tail. Dino stared openly.

"...Harmony?"

The mare walked off...only to shift from equine to human within a few steps.

"Ruin all my fun will you," she said to Fon playfully.

"How?" asked Dino, fascinated.

"I _am_ a witch, dear. Animal transformation isn't nearly as hard as they want you to believe, though it takes a lot of patience and actual work to pull it off. I don't need to tell you what a limited supply the English have of _that_."

"So you're a unicorn?" asked Dino.

"A shadow unicorn. It comes with a few extra perks, and thanks to my Flames I can fly without the wings," she said mischievously.

Fon had an amused glimmer in his eyes as well.

"So what's your cutie mark?" he joked.

I-Pin had become a die hard fan of the recently revamped _My Little Pony_ series and was a huge Princess Luna fan. She also liked Pinkie Pie, since it reminded her of Harmony when she was at her most mischievous. Fon didn't mind it because while it was a children's cartoon, it wasn't completely ridiculous and the songs were actually quite catchy.

"Probably something similar to Luna or Nightmare Moon's. Though without the crescent moon. I call my animal self Equus, after something I saw while I was trying to sleep when I first opened the ranch."

She found the horse creature from the _Pandora Hearts_ fascinating, especially when she figured out how to replicate it's ability to pass through shadows.

That would be an unpleasant surprise for anyone stupid to think they could hold her.

Dino made sure Enzo wouldn't be up to trouble, before he wrapped an arm around his wife and kissed her on the forehead.

"Could you please not scare me like that again?"

"Tell Reborn and the others to back off or I'll show them my secondary and I'll consider it," she deadpanned. "At least Fon has the sense not to mother hen me so much."

"I'm not stupid enough to make someone with such a strong Cloud secondary feel caged," said Fon bluntly.

"...That explains so much..." said Dino.

Obviously the horses and the ranch were Harmony's territory, and Clouds got really pissy if they thought someone was challenging them or trying to cage them. It also explained her extreme reluctance to leave the ranch for his home, though the way she explained it was also pretty logical considering they both had enemies all to happy to kill them.

Well, at least he knew better than to try and take it away from her. He wasn't an idiot and Clouds were notorious with being very violent if they were protecting their territory.

Colonello and Reborn both grumbled when Fon finally told them why Harmony had bolted. Apparently it never occurred to them that she had a Cloud secondary.

At least they gave her some space now.

* * *

Harmony was entertaining Dino with the tale of the infamous "Lockhart Valentine's Day surprise" (it was unlikely anyone who went to Hogwarts that year would forget the 'singing cupids' and the ridiculous appearance of those poor dwarves) when she noticed Colonello's depression.

"Upset about Lal?" she asked, wrapping him up in a hug.

Colonello said nothing, but leaned into her hug anyway. Dino was preparing for tonight, since he had to adjust the usual plans due to Harmony's condition.

He held out a card. It wasn't anything fancy, nothing like his usual grand gestures. And it was highly unlikely to reach her this late, even with same-day delivery.

She hugged him a bit tighter.

"Maybe now she'll get the hint that you were serious when you told her you'd quit bothering her. If she hasn't responded to your attempts by now, maybe it's not meant to be."

Colonello felt miserable, since he really _did_ love his old captain. But he had told her on New Years that he would quit bothering her with his usual gestures since she clearly didn't care in the first place. It had hurt like hell, but he knew that with time the hurt would heal over.

That didn't mean he would have to bear it alone. Harmony wasn't about to let him suffer like that.

He soaked in the feeling of her Sky, just allowing it to wrap around him.

Harmony had to hold back a smile when the next day, Lal Mirch showed up rather irate that she hadn't gotten anything from the "idiot student" of hers.

That was when she realized what was really going on. She desperately tried not to laugh.

Colonello looked openly stunned that Lal had come to see him when she didn't hear anything from him for the entire day, when he usually bothered her with a crappy serenade and large gifts of flowers. She had feared the worst and couldn't concentrate at all.

She was relieved to find out he was alright, and hurt that he hadn't done anything.

"Oh god... she's a Tsundere! No wonder you kept getting mixed signals!" said Harmony, laughing hard.

"A what?" said Colonello baffled.

"She hides her real feelings behind her tough woman mask, but underneath it all she's a total softie," explained Harmony, once she got over her giggle fit.

Lal looked irritated, but was stopped immediately by Colonello to keep her from kicking Harmony.

"She's pregnant," he explained quickly. "Not even three months along."

Lal looked stunned.

"Why haven't they announced it yet?"

That would have been something she would have heard by now.

"We're keeping it quiet. Dino has enemies and it's easier to keep me from being targeted simply because I'm carrying his child," said Harmony.

That and pregnant Skies often had great difficulty controlling their Flames. She could be accidentally outed as a Sky if she stayed in the mansion once people found out.

Worse, she could be outed as Reborn, Fon and Colonello's Sky. That would make her an instant target, never mind the idiots trying to force a Guardian bond with her.

Lal decided to kick Colonello instead.

"Do you have any idea how worried I was when you didn't even _call_ , you stupid idiot?" she said, upset.

Colonello had a weird look on his face.

"Well what the hell else was I supposed to do? You always yell at me and use me for target practice without even once saying anything about my feelings! For god's sake I took the brunt of this damn curse _for_ you! What else am I supposed to do to get you to notice me!" shouted Colonello.

Lal winced at the reminder.

"I didn't ask you to follow me that day, you damn idiot!"

Harmony's amusement shifted to irritation. Lal's pride was the main problem, and while Colonello was persistent and loyal, eventually he would say enough.

Maybe not today, but somewhere down the road.

"And how long are you going to be guarding a civilian? It's not like she understands the dangers of our world!"

"It's a permanent gig! And she knows a hell of a lot more than the poor woman who married that ignorant jackass you call a boss!" he shouted back.

Lal stared at him in disbelief.

"No way in _hell_ could the Cavallone pay one of us enough to have a _permanent_ body guarding gig, no matter how lucrative it is!" she said, eyes narrowing. "What's really going on Colonello?"

Colonello shut up immediately. He was not outing his Sky, even to the woman he had loved for years because there was too high a chance she would tell Iemitsu.

Harmony's biggest protection was that no one knew she had Active Sky Flames or that she was the Sky to three Arcobaleno. Her pregnancy was dangerous enough!

Lal looked between Harmony and Colonello.

"Why are you really protecting her?"

"I'm not afraid to invoke Omerta against you Lal. There are some things we are not sharing with those not already in the know and the Vongola have been shit when it comes to security lately," said Colonello bluntly.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Two heirs already dead and a third one iced for over five years? And the last heir doesn't really have a life expectancy that would impress anyone, especially with his habits and crappy Guardians. And the less said about how little I trust that jackass Iemitsu, the better," said Colonello.

Lal looked between him and Harmony. There was an odd expression on her face...right before she added several little clues up. Her eyes went wide with shock and realization.

"Oh my god... she's your _Sky_ , isn't she?"

Colonello looked at Harmony.

"I already have the fidelius running regarding that secret. Even if she did figure it out, she won't be able to tell anyone or communicate it without our permission," said Harmony.

Colonello sagged.

"Harmony isn't just _my_ Sky. She's also Reborn and Fon's Sky as well," said Colonello.

Lal's mouth open and closed in shock. The mystery Sky of Reborn and Fon was right under their noses the entire time?!

Colonello looked at Lal with a dead serious look.

"I care for you Lal. I always have and I probably always will. But I swear to god if you even try to tell Iemitsu or the Vongola who Harmony is, then you're my enemy. Her safety is more important to me than any relationship we might have had. And to be honest, I'm sick and tired of the way you always reject me so callously," said Colonello bluntly.

Lal stared at him...this wasn't her idiot student. This was a Rain Guardian protecting his Sky from a potential threat. The bond between them was strong enough that he would even disregard his old feelings for her to keep her safe and she hadn't even asked him to.

She said nothing when she left the ranch, though her emotions were in turmoil. She had no idea how to react to the revelations she just had, and to be honest the last thing she wanted to deal with was Iemitsu's stupidity.

Either way she knew a lot of things were going to change once people found out what Harmony was.

And that was before they found out she was pregnant.


	8. Chapter 8

Colonello fell into a bit of a slump after the confrontation with Lal. Fortunately Harmony kept him busy so he didn't have time to think, which he appreciated.

Hard, monotonous tasks that were very useful around the ranch like cleaning out the troughs so that crap didn't grow in them or repairing the fences wore him out and kept him too tired to think about his feelings for his old captain.

And at night, Harmony held him and let her Flames linger around the room. A few times he cried during the night, but it was the feeling of old hurts while trying to get Lal's attention healing over.

Reborn and Fon stuck close by, in a silent show of support. They knew how deeply Colonello had loved Lal, so dumping her was going to hurt like hell for a while.

After a few months, when Harmony _really_ began to show, Colonello was able to get up and work in the morning without feeling the sting of his broken heart.

He didn't even care when they had to move to the mansion (though Fon, Colonello and Reborn would feed the horses since Harmony was being put on restrictions since she was six months along), though it certainly got people to raise eyebrows.

Mostly because the fact she had the Rain Arcobaleno as her visible bodyguard spread a lot of rumors of what the Cavallone had done to convince him to give up his contract with Mafia Land to act as protection for Harmony in the first place. And why the other Arcobaleno had yet to protest the arrangement.

The fact she was clearly pregnant had already made the rounds. Though even Dino had to admit the vehemence with which she turned the Vongola's "gift" as congratulations into target practice was a bit over the top.

It wasn't until she made him watch _Slayers_ (another one of I-Pin's favorite series, because the strongest one there was a small woman who reminded her of Harmony) and he saw Naga the White Serpent that he got the whole laugh bit. Though the speculative looks he was giving the woman's traveling outfit and his wife had Harmony punching his shoulder playfully with a promise of later.

After all, there was no point in ordering one _now_ when her body was far too big to properly wear it.

As it was, Fon was already _highly_ amused when I-Pin wore a scaled down recreation of Lina Inverse's familiar outfit for Halloween that year. And that she had taken to wearing everything but the cloak when her usual clothes were being washed.

He wouldn't be that upset if I-Pin took a bit too much after Lina's personality. It meant she would be doing most of the scaring when it came to boys. He was HIGHLY protective of the girls, especially I-Pin whom he considered a daughter.

Reborn did groan when Skull eventually heard about Colonello guarding Harmony and came to meet her himself. Or to laugh at Colonello.

It was fifty-fifty, since the news about Colonello breaking up with Lal hadn't passed to the others.

Harmony took one at Skull and Oodako and squealed.

"Too cute!" she said, gushing over the very surprised octopus. "What's their name?"

Skull blinked, taken aback.

"Oodako! I am the immortal Skull-sama!"

"Fan of Godzilla?" she guessed, highly amused. "At least you like the better ones, the one in New York was total crap."

"I know! They took away his atomic breath and they had him lay _eggs_ , for crying out loud! I mean the minis were cute as hell, but the idea of Americans doing that much damage to Godzilla was just plain stupid! And come on, mutated lizard from nuclear tests? Godzilla is the freaking king of the kaiju, not some mutated lizard!" said Skull ranting.

"I totally agree! At least the new one was halfway decent and more in line with the real thing!" said Harmony gushing.

Colonello stared at the two of them in disbelief, before he let out a pained laugh.

"Of course you would bond with the lackey over something as silly as Godzilla movies," he said tiredly.

"Godzilla is the King of the Japanese Monster movies! Though Mothra comes close," said Harmony with passion. Skull nodded in absolute agreement.

He liked her already. Then he registered the tone Colonello used and frowned.

"What happened? Lal finally dump you?" he asked carefully.

"Try the other way around. She pushed too far and found out something she shouldn't, so he made it clear he was through with her right after Valentine's day. He tried to make a clean break but she tracked him down and demanded an explanation despite ignoring him for decades," said Harmony gently.

Skull winced with sympathy. He might have come to annoy Colonello, but even he wasn't that cold hearted to piss him off when he was depressed.

"Do you mind if I hug your octopus? They really are too cute," said Harmony.

Oodako didn't squirm when she picked her up, and even let Harmony have a good cuddle.

"So how did you convince him to give up that cushy job in Mafia Land? Not that I'm complaining, mind you... not getting my ass kicked by him or Reborn was a relief."

"That would be telling. As in I might divulge it over a proper Godzilla marathon with popcorn and snacks."

Skull took off his helmet and grinned at her.

"I am so in...so long as we skip the one set in New York and go straight to the newest one."

"Agreed," said Harmony, eyes glinting with glee. It was so nice to have a fellow aficionado of the classics. Dino was usually too busy or too exhausted to have a proper marathon, and I-Pin was too active to watch more than one or two.

Dino had to do a double take seeing his wife cheering on the king of the kaiju with an enthusiastic Skull and Oodako in a large salt water bowl while they were eating a large tub of popcorn.

"Am I seeing things or did she convert another one?"

"Give it time. With any luck Skull will convince her to stay off her feet with movie marathons until the kid pops out," said Colonello with a conspiratorial whisper.

Dino looked at the fun Harmony was having and the way Skull was acting and grinned. He had a few calls to make.

Odds were Harmony would add Skull as her Cloud and they'd keep each other busy for a few hours.

By the time they finished the most current Godzilla movie, Dino was grinning. Skull winced when he saw Dino for a moment, until he heard the news.

"I convinced the Calcassa familigia to sign over your contract. You're free to stay here since I have no plans to invade Mafia Land like they did every year."

Skull's eyes were wide.

"What?"

Dino nodded to his wife, who was half-asleep.

"You actually got her to stay in one place and not move around too much for over ten hours. She's far too active normally and the only time she actually rests is when she's sleeping."

It took Skull a few seconds to get what he was saying, before he started grinning openly.

"So... basically you want to hire me to have movie marathons with her or keep her distracted until she pops?" he asked slowly.

Dino nodded in agreement.

"I'm in! She has great taste in movies and I was really tired of attacking the resort anyway!" said Skull with cheer.

He was being paid to watch movies and keep someone who was really nice to him from overexerting herself while pregnant. And she actually showed him more respect than the Calcassa ever had. The only reason they even kept him around was because he was the Cloud Arcobaleno, which _sucked_.

Within a week, Skull found out by accident Harmony was a Sky and happily joined as her Cloud Guardian when he found her hugging Colonello to dull the pain of cutting Lal out of his life. Colonello had been slightly annoyed, but at least Skull wasn't actively getting on his nerves anymore.

* * *

It was the smell and the sharp intense pain in her back that told her something big was happening.

Dino had been hovering around his wife for days, as she was about due and there was no way in hell he was missing this.

"My water just broke."

Dino's eyes widened, before he went into panic mode.

"Romario, call the others in, now. Colonello, you're probably going to need to dose me a few times during this..." said Dino.

Colonello snorted.

"Hell, I might need some tranquility myself when this is all over!" he shot back. "At least you have some Sun Flames, so the risk is minimal."

Within an hour, everyone from Reborn to Fon (with I-Pin being kept outside since she would likely react badly to the inevitable screaming) was eagerly waiting for the kid to come out. It would take several hours, but at least now they'd find out the gender.

Harmony had been incredibly tight lipped and not even Dino knew whether it was a boy or a girl. She had quite a bit of humor on the subject, as she alone knew which it was and wanted to surprise everyone. Not even Colonello knew and he had been her constant shadow since she was confirmed to be expecting.

Well, him or Skull anyway.

For eight tense, _long_ hours, they waited for the process to end. Oddly, there wasn't nearly as much screaming as there should have been and the room wasn't sound proofed in case Dino had to call Reborn in. With three Suns, having Reborn in there was almost overkill save for an emergency. Especially since he was more adept at _ending_ lives than saving them.

So they were naturally all relieved when the first squalling of the newborn was heard... shortly followed by a _second_ infant.

There was a loud thump, and the sound of someone slapping Dino back awake.

He had fainted upon realizing Harmony had been carrying _twins_ this whole time and thought it hilarious to surprise him.

"Give us a minute to clean up the worst of it," Harmony called out. Certain parts would be saved (as was tradition for magicals) but the rest would be cleaned up in short order.

I-Pin was one of the first through the door, and she stared with undisguised awe and delight when she saw the pink and blue blankets.

Dino was holding his daughter gingerly, as he had never held a baby before. No one would trust a new born with a klutz like him.

"What are their names?" asked Reborn.

Dino panicked for a moment.

"Lir for the boy, I think. Or at possibly Lugh. I'm almost tempted to name her Athena or Artemis."

Dino blinked at her.

"It's tradition to name children in the Black family after gods or constellations. I have cousins named Narcissa, Andromeda, Nymphadora and Draco," she deadpanned. "At the very least they can be used as middle names, since I know it's common to have multiple ones."

Dino blinked, before he nodded in agreement. Having middle names like that might be possible and no one said they had to _use_ them in public.

"Diana Fiammetta Hyacinth Cavallone," said Dino finally, looking at the little girl. Seeing the amused looks she gave him, he smiled at her. "Diana is a little less obvious than Artemis."

Harmony openly laughed at that.

"And him?" asked Reborn openly amused.

"Renato Cielo Libra Cavallone," she said. She noticed Reborn flinched at the name, and wondered why.

Fon chuckled at his old friend, well aware why he reacted to the name Renato.

Either way, there was going to be a big party to celebrate the twin heirs being born. Harmony was going to be sleeping for a few days to recover her strength...though Dino was less than happy learning the reason she had taken the whole thing so well was because she had been put under the cruciatus curse repeatedly and it had built up a major tolerance to excruciating pain.

The pain killers they dosed her up with helped a lot too, but it was mostly her ability to ignore the pain.

* * *

Squalo opened up his e-mail and found something odd. Very few people knew this account, so when he opened it he was pleasantly surprised to see the pictures.

"Voi! Miser brat, prince brat get in here!"

Belphegor came in with Mammon on his shoulder.

"What do you want peasant?"

"Time is money," said Mammon ominously. "And you are keeping me from my accounting."

Squalo turned the screen and all protests dropped.

"The Horse Queen has procreated," said Belphegor with an amused look on his face.

"She sent an invite to us specifically," said Squalo, reading the text under it. "Though you'll have to be on your best behavior."

"Ushishishi... the Prince will behave in front of the Queen," said Belphegor loftily.

Squalo looked at some of the other pictures and snickered.

"She set the gift from the Vongola main family on fire, but she kept the one we sent...though she confiscated the knives," he said, looking at the text.

"Ushishishi! At least we know the Queen has good taste," said Belphegor amused.

She had made no bones about how disgusted she was with the Vongola's recent actions. Especially since the current Don didn't bother to do his job right and teach his sons how to acquire _proper_ Guardians. Or give them decent security.

"When's the party?"

"It's going to be invitation only and it's next week."

They each heard a chime, and Belphegor snickered again at the invitation. He was almost NEVER invited personally to parties like this.


	9. Chapter 9

**For those of you with pets, I have Go Fund Me page. Just add /tsukis-vet-visit to find it. It'll also link you straight to my facebook profile and I do accept friend requests!**

* * *

Dino wasn't the only one baffled by the fact that the twins almost never cried at night. His Guardians were always on hand to keep an eye on their Sky's children, and to sooth them so that the parents could sleep. Especially Harmony, since young Ren seemed to latch onto her and refused to let her go while Diana was clearly a daddy's girl.

And yet they never cried at night.

Newborns were notorious for waking up new parents at all hours.

Finally after a month of this, Dino snuck into the nursery to find out what was going on...only to find his amused wife waiting.

"...I just left you in bed."

"You left my past self in bed," she corrected.

"Your...past self?"

She held up a thin chain, which had an odd hourglass on the end.

"Magic is a wonderful thing."

"What is that?"

"Time turner. For every flip of the hourglass you go back a full hour. Though there are restrictions and you aren't allowed to meet your past self or else you'd create a paradox. My past self gets to sleep in, while my 'future' self watches over the children."

Dino blinked.

"And what exactly is the toll it takes on you?"

"A few hours of exhaustion."

"And that time will add up. My men can handle it, Harmony. I don't want to lose you because you added up too much extra time," said Dino firmly. He made a note to tell that to his 'past' wife as well.

Harmony blinked.

"Go to sleep, Harmony. We can handle the twins for a while," said Dino gently, like he would a skittish horse.

He carefully removed Ren from her hold and let her sleep...and busted his wife the next morning.

The next night Romario and the others _finally_ got hands on experience with watching the twins, who were quite a handful.

Romario almost dreaded when they started crawling.

* * *

Harmony was about to visit her home when she got a text from Squallo.

 _Boss free, but very weak. Potions?_

Harmony used one of the keys that was set to the Varia mansion. The second Squalo learned _she_ was the one who created them he immediately commissioned a set and had a door set aside specifically for those trusted with the keys. Since they were blood locked (something he heartily approved of), that meant they didn't have to worry about assholes trying to pull a fast one in their headquarters. Like Iemitsu for instance.

Mammon had bitched about it, until they found out who they were buying from. Harmony gave them a bulk discount.

It took her five minutes to reach the infirmary, and she openly winced at the damage she could see from where she was standing.

"How bad is the damage, and what can I do to help speed up the healing?" she asked Lussuria.

The Sun froze the second she spoke up, before narrowing his eyes at her.

"Who are you?"

"Harmony Cavallone. Squalo texted me asking if I could provide potions that could help," she said bluntly. "Now what damage has been done... I'll need a general idea if only to narrow down which ones will work best. I can already tell he'll need something for the scarring."

Lussuria stared at her, and only relaxed when Mammon arrived with Squalo.

"Thanks for coming so fast," he said with relief.

"You are a good friend, even if your taste in music leaves much to be desired... especially while drunk. Besides, you clearly care about your boss a great deal and it would be ridiculous of me not to help out where I can."

Squalo looked openly relieved at that, then gave Luss a look.

The Sun kept silent but still gave a general list of Xanxus' injuries.

Scarring was the least of it. There were several instances of frostbite alone and one of his eyes was partially damaged. Not enough to require removal or glasses, but enough that it was worrying.

Harmony made a general list of potions that could help. She knew more about healing potions save for healers or mediwizards and the Italian Ministry knew she bought them to save on vet bills for her magical horses.

They wouldn't bother to ask why she would need to buy anything since she had a license for them. As far as they would know, she had taken in a badly injured magical creature that was hiding with the centaurs and they wouldn't piss them off unless someone paid them to deal with both the herd _and_ an angry witch.

Not worth the time, effort or money.

Within two hours she returned, armed with several potions. Some of which could be applied through an IV.

Lussuria was immediately relieved and went to work, making happy sounds as the potions kicked in faster than even modern medicine. Already the scarring was slowly dissipating, and he left several bandages soaked in that potion wrapped around nearly the entire body. They wouldn't fade completely, but the damage would be minimized by quite a bit.

For the next week and a half, Harmony made potion runs as Lussuria figured out what worked best on their boss. He was still kept out cold for medical reasons, but when he did awake it was the same day Harmony brought her kids with her.

Lussuria had cooed at the twins in between working on Xanxus.

He glared at his Sun...the he noticed the infants.

"What the fuck? Since when do we allow baby brats here?" he demanded.

Harmony almost glared at him. Instead she lightly slapped him on the head.

"If you're going to swear, do it in other languages so it takes Dino and his men a while to realize that they're picking up what many consider bad habits. I'd rather they actually _learn_ something if they're going to hear that crap," she said flatly in Russian.

Xanxus blinked for a moment, before he smirked at her. He liked her already.

"Who's she and why are there infants here?" he asked in German.

"She's the Cavallone Decimo's wife, and she's been helping us bring you back up to peak condition a lot faster boss," said Luss in the same language. "As for the kids, well she offered to watch them and they assumed she was taking them to the ranch."

Xanxus gave her a new look.

"Lucky bastard," he said in Italian.

"You have no idea how often we hear that phrase," she replied in perfect English complete with British accent.

"OI! Harmony, where are you, kora?"

Xanxus blinked twice.

"Was that the Rain Arcobaleno or was I imagining things?"

Harmony walked out for a moment and brought a less than amused Colonello back in her arms.

"Honestly, it took you lot far too long to realize I was sneaking off somewhere other than my home," said Harmony rolling her eyes.

"Well he nearly had a heart attack when Fon said you weren't there," said Colonello. "Though this explains _why_."

Xanxus stiffened. He knew damn well that the Rain Arcobaleno was in love with Lal Mirch, the one who _really_ ran CEDEF. If he was here then it was only a matter of time before Iemitsu found out.

Colonello knew what he was thinking and openly rolled his eyes.

"I gave up on Lal months ago and haven't talked to her since. Exactly how long will he need to recover, kora?"

"A few more months. Preferably with something to slowly rebuild the muscle tone he lost," said Lussuria without hesitation.

Colonello had an evil grin on his face. He looked at Harmony with an almost pleading expression.

"Do you object to horses or a quieter setting than this?" she asked bluntly.

Xanxus blinked.

"What."

"I own and operate a horse ranch that's very exclusive. And there's always something to do there. You can rebuild your skills in private since I don't allow people to come as they please, and you have to be invited to get past the mist barrier Mammon was kind enough to help put in place. There's no way for CEDEF or the Vongola to find out that you're back and your men would have open access to visit and catch you up on major events."

"And what do you get out of this?"

"It'll piss off the old fucker who did this to you once he finds out, never mind that deadbeat jackass who supposedly runs intelligence. Considering both those idiots still believe me to be a civilian of all things, it would serve them right for taking things at face value," she replied in Japanese.

Xanxus grinned openly at that.

"Plus it would give you the chance to add a few runes to your guns and make you even more terrifying. Can you imagine being able to hit the old bastard with a prank potion that turns him into a woman long enough to experience a full menstrual cycle?" said Harmony evilly.

"...You're already married aren't you?"

"To the Decimo of the Cavallone familigia, yes. These are his children."

"Damn."

"No one said I couldn't conspire to make the old bastard's life a living hell with you anyway. And I'm sure I could use another corrupting influence on them, if only so they know how to keep my dear husband and his Guardians on their toes since Reborn is no longer his tutor," she said with a wicked smile. Colonello was clearly trying not to laugh his ass off at the mental image.

"Lucky bastard. Very lucky bastard," said Xanxus appreciatively.

If he was surprised by the key system, he didn't show it. But she gave him a full set of them for free because he amused her greatly.

Needless to say he had a very amusing time when Dino came to the house and found _Xanxus_ drinking coffee like it was nothing at the table. He looked at his wife.

"Do I want to know?"

"Apparently the Vongola have a technique that quite literally freezes Flames. Timoteo used it on him, rather than giving him the dignity of killing him outright. He recently managed to get free, but his skills have atrophied so I agreed to let him stay here and readjust. It also gives him time to catch up in peace."

Dino had a look of disgust on his face. Xanxus glared until the blond spoke.

"I'm starting to see why you dislike Timoteo Vongola so much without having actually _meet_ him until that party."

"I've said it before and I'll say it again. Old men need to know when to let go of their damn power when the young are responsible enough to handle the burden. Conniving bastard," said Harmony with a scowl.

Xanxus looked at Dino oddly. Dino looked him in the eye unconcerned.

"Like I told Squalo...the alliance my familigia has with yours is on hold until the Vongola get a new don. I don't care if it's you or the obviously hidden bloodline of the Primo, but I am not going to let my family suffer because that old man won't let go of his power."

"...What do you mean obviously hidden bloodline?" said Xanxus dangerously.

Harmony rolled her eyes.

"The history books clearly state the Primo 'stepped down' as opposed to being killed. And that he moved away from Italy. It's simple logic to expect a hidden bloodline and if you think about it, the current ones in charge only hold it because of the fact that Giotto didn't want a civil war with his cousin over something as stupid as the rings," she explained.

"Which means that there is potentially another heir in waiting that we don't know about yet," growled Xanxus, not liking this one bit.

"That's why I told Squalo that I'll back the Decimo heir... and if Timoteo tries to pull out Giotto's real heir out of the woodwork and push for them to take the spot, I'll perform an assessment of whether or not they deserve it before I'll side with either of you. Though if I like both candidates I'll only jump in to keep you from killing each other over something stupid."

Xanxus looked at Dino and his wife for a moment, before nodding in acknowledgment. He could respect that sort of position, if only because it meant that whoever managed to become Decimo heir would have a strong, loyal ally. They weren't being Stupid about siding with just anyone.

Reborn took one look at Xanxus before rolling his eyes.

"He's going to be staying here for a while isn't he?"

"Yes. And if you could help speed up the healing process I would appreciate it. He's going to be regaining his muscle tone helping around the ranch," said Harmony.

Xanxus growled when he saw Reborn. Harmony lightly flicked him on the forehead...before loosening the hold she had on her Sky.

It took Xanxus a few seconds to realize what was really going on before he relaxed.

"So he's your Sun?"

"And no one outside of Dino and a scant handful of others is aware I'm an Active Sky, much less one strong enough to have Reborn, Fon, Colonello and Skull as my Guardians. Mostly because I don't want a target on my back or on my children," said Harmony bluntly. "I can protect myself well enough...they can't."

Xanxus found his respect for Dino's wife growing. She might pretend to be a civilian (there was no way he was mistaking her for one), but inside she was more like him.

A fucking survivor with common sense.

That being said, even he had to do a double take at the actual _unicorns_ , the biggest of which took one look at him before dismissing him as a threat.

He felt more comfortable around the dragon horse things that Harmony called thestrals. Now there was a horse he could like, because they loved meat as much as he did.

He fully planned to get a few from Harmony once he was back up to snuff.

She found it rather amusing, to be honest.


	10. Chapter 10

Between Harmony's potions and the fact he was quickly regaining his skills thanks to Harmony leaving a spot on the ranch open for his aim (allowing him to adjust to his recently healed eye), Xanxus was back to his old job in the Varia within three months.

During that time Reborn had been hired out to train the next Decimo heir, thus confirming Harmony and Dino's suspicions that there _was_ a legacy left behind by Giotto.

Xanxus would withhold his opinion on whoever Reborn was training until he met the kid.

He was on a more 'even keel' as Harmony put it since she linked her Sky with his Wrath, and it showed. That, and the fact she could repair the large number of vases she kept on one of the empty fields that he just destroyed the hell out of whenever he felt his anger turning too dark helped a lot.

If anyone understood the need to break something and get the pure rage out, it was Harmony. In fact she had a deal with the local art studio where she bought the failed ceramic projects to use as target practice.

On top of that was the kids. Xanxus didn't often show it, but he had a soft spot for little kids.

I-Pin seemed to consider him an 'uncle' the same way she did Reborn and the others, while the twins would stare with undisguised fascination at the feathers in his hair, along with the long coon tail.

Harmony had found the whole reasoning behind the feathers amusing, and had promptly scoured her stables and presented him with an arrangement of new ones from her pegasus stables that he could braid in with the unicorn hair that they shed naturally. But the one he liked the most was one of Hedwig's feathers. It was a sign that she trusted him completely, which was a rarity for an assassin.

Xanxus was actually there when Reborn came through the portal, immediately went to the liquor cabinet before scowling as Xanxus was holding the best (and strongest bottle) in the house hostage.

"What happened?" he asked.

"What happened? What happened is that some idiot sealed the kid when he Activated his Flames without bothering to account for Sky Attraction! A civilian I can deal with, but one with that many issues thanks to years of intense bullying and negative reinforcement is going to be a nightmare!" ranted Reborn.

Xanxus stilled, before pulling down two glasses and pouring them both a healthy shot of the booze.

"Talk."

Harmony came in while Reborn was ranting to a sympathetic ear, and her face went from surprised to downright pissed.

"Let me get this straight. The kid you were sent to train is a lot like my husband except he has zero support system from the people around him and everyone automatically assumes he's a no-good useless person simply because of the effects the seal has on him?" she said, furious. Her Sky was lashing out in pissed off rage.

Reborn nodded.

"And this is the same boy who happens to be related to that imbecile Iemitsu?"

"From what I was told, Iemitsu _asked_ for the seal to be placed claiming his son wouldn't _need_ Flames since he was outside the mafia," said Reborn.

Xanxus ruined his glass, and Reborn healed where the shard went into his hand.

"He _what_."

Dino came through and took one look at the atmosphere.

"What happened? I could feel Harmony's rage through our bond."

"Iemitsu had Timoteo seal his own son, a baby _Sky_ , and didn't even bother to take into account the effects Sky Attraction has on others," said Reborn tightly.

Dino became pissed as well. The idea of someone sealing his children at such a young age (Tsunayoshi wasn't even fifteen yet), never mind a Sky was something so abhorrent he would never have thought it possible.

Harmony was the one to become rational first.

"Alright boys, we are going to be firmly on damage control mode. It's clear that the Ninth generation and CEDEF have lost their damn minds if they did something like that and expect the kid to still be able to take on the Decimo title. While I have faith in your abilities Reborn, this kid is going to need a real support system if he even wants to remotely survive in the mafia."

"What do you have in mind?" asked Reborn.

"You continue on like normal. I'm going to bring the kids with me to Namimori, was it?"

Reborn nodded.

"I'll bring them with me when Dino makes his appearance, and give him someone to lean on. You're friendly enough dear, but if this kid has been bullied as badly as you say he has, he'll need someone who understands what it's like from a similar perspective and isn't constantly reminding him he's stuck joining the mafia because of his father. Once we figure out what seal was used and remove it, Xanxus and I will help train him up since Timoteo clearly can't be trusted to do that right and Iemitsu is an idiot."

"What's in it for me?" asked Xanxus.

"Do you really want the Family to fall apart because of Iemitsu and the Ninth's stupidity? Take out your justified rage on the ones responsible, not a fellow victim," said Harmony sharply. "Besides, imagine how pissed off they'll be if they found out you trained the one who was supposed to take your spot as Decimo."

Xanxus blinked, before a dark grin came on his face.

He could get behind logic like that.

"We are going to make sure that the Vongola is genuinely strong, not the fake strength that the Ninth and his idiocy has been keeping in check. The sheer number of rats in the Family now are ridiculous, to say nothing of the fact that Iemitsu can't even control his own men!" said Harmony sharply.

Xanxus was openly grinning. He looked at Dino in the eye and stated with absolute certainty "Lucky bastard."

Dino chuckled.

"That seems to be a common sentiment when people meet my wife," said Dino.

"How is it she's not in the mafia already?"

"I hate people, and I like horses more," said Harmony flatly. "And the less said about how much I despise sheeple, the better."

"Sheeple?"

"Mindless drones who follow the loudest and most popular voice, even when they're clearly wrong," she clarified.

Xanxus blinked, before he let out a dark laugh.

"That makes so much fucking sense! I'll have to use that sometime!"

He completely understood what she meant too. He fucking hated the 'sheeple' who cowered like weaklings and expected someone else to solve their problems instead of getting off their ass and fucking doing something about it themselves.

Reborn blinked. Then he considered the effect Harmony had on others, and nodded to himself.

Her intervention might actually put some proper spine in the kid and get him on the right track to actually _staying alive_ , instead of just going through the motions.

He used his new key to return to Namimori, having already set up the portal through the attic, the one place neither mother or son would think to look for a door that let people into their house.

This was one secret the main Vongola familigia didn't know about, though they had been trying to get their own set for a while now. However the mystery creator had outright stated they were not interested in working with them. Ever.

Reborn couldn't wait for the chaos that would come from Harmony finally stepping out of the shadows into her proper place. The Ripper Prince wasn't too far off when he called Harmony the "Horse Queen".

* * *

Tsuna didn't know that a lot of things were about to change, most of them for the better when he came home from school that day.

Seeing five men near his house and meeting Dino was interesting. But it was Dino's wife that had his immediate attention.

Something about her made all his senses jump up and yell at him that he needed to get to know her better. That she would ease a lot of the fears he had about his life.

That she would understand _exactly_ what he was going through and help him get through it.

Harmony was a kind woman, but it was her eyes that had his attention. They were gentle and full of empathy.

The hug made him relax without realizing it, even when Gokudera damn near stormed his house.

"You're Gokudera Hayato, the son of Lavina, right? The pianist?" she asked.

Gokudera blinked, before he nodded shyly. Everyone only ever saw him as the son of a mafioso, not as his mother's child.

He heard rumors about the Cavallone Decimo's wife, but he had never had a chance to meet her personally.

Her smile made him openly blush.

"I've heard some of her performances. I'm pretty sure I could get you some of the recordings, if you don't have them already. I'm sorry you lost your mother so young," said Harmony gently.

Tsuna was amazed at the change. Gokudera was never this calm, and it looked like her words were having a major effect on his behavior. He wasn't so hostile or jumpy.

Harmony was able to calm his Storm down with ease. He was silently impressed and wished he knew how to do the same.

"You're Tsuna, Reborn's new student right?"

He nodded slowly. Harmony's smile calmed his usual skittish behavior down, something he later learned came from working so close with horses every day.

"I know your father Iemitsu, and I have to say..."

Tsuna winced, waiting with baited breath for the inevitable put down. Even his mother compared him unfavorably with his father.

"You look far more competent than that idiot."

Wait, what?

Tsuna looked at her wide eyed in shock. No one had ever told him something like that.

Harmony chuckled.

"I wouldn't trust Iemitsu to do his job, and I never liked him after I found out he had a wife and son, but basically abandoned them to go around gallivanting around Italy. He's living it up in another country and never bothers to visit his family, while pretending he cares? It's like he's trying to fool everyone, including himself."

Tsuna stared at her, mouth agape.

Someone else was putting into words what he had always secretly believed, but didn't dare say in front of his mother who believed that idiot could do no wrong.

It was impossible to hate a man who was never there.

Reborn chuckled, reminding Tsuna he was there. He winced.

"Reborn, you haven't been bullying him have you?"

"I've been _trying_ to work past the damn seal he has on his Flames. I should have just brought you here sooner," he corrected.

"Seal?" repeated Tsuna. What did he mean, seal?

"Iemitsu asked the Ninth to seal your natural talents when you were a child, stating you wouldn't need them as a civilian. Your clumsiness, inability to pay attention in class and general 'no-good' nature is mostly because it's forcing your real self down. Only idiots and fools would seal a Sky," said Reborn patiently.

Tsuna had no words.

He wasn't an actual Dame? Iemitsu (he refused to call that man father ever again) had done this to him deliberately?

Now that he thought back, he could vaguely remember an old man who visited shortly before everything went cold. Tsuna became pissed off immediately.

Harmony patted him on the shoulder.

"Which is why we're going to find a way to remove it as soon as possible, and try to rebuild your real self back to where it should be. By the time we're done with you, you're going to be able to look those idiots in the eye and tell them that they can sit on it and spin if they think they're going to keep to the old way of doing things."

"Besides, this means I get a surrogate little brother/babysitter," said Dino amused.

"What?"

Harmony chuckled.

"You're a fellow victim... I mean _student_ , of Reborn's antics. As such, my husband has decided to treat you like a little brother. Besides I'm sure Ren and Diana would love another uncle."

For the first time in his life, Tsuna felt like things might actually work out for him for once. At the very least, he had someone he could fall back on that wasn't Reborn. He knew he could trust Harmony completely.

* * *

 _On the ranch..._

Tsuna nearly yelped when Quest came straight up to him, looked him right in the eyes...and promptly began nuzzling his hair. It was only Harmony's presence that he didn't bolt.

"Easy, Tsuna," she said soothingly. She took his right hand and put it on Quest's long mane. He marveled at how soft and silky it was. Impishly, she whispered something in his ear and he suddenly blinked.

"Is that a horn?"

"Quest is the lead unicorn of the small herd I have on the property. That he came up to you so quickly and isn't dismissing you is a good sign. It means he likes you and that the others might even let you visit. Just avoid the forest. The ones who live in there are less than friendly towards humans for good reason."

"Unicorns are real?" said Tsuna with open awe.

"Very real, in fact the orange stable is full of pegasus...winged horses from Greek myths."

Seeing the innocent awe and enthusiasm, Harmony gave him a tour of the ranch. Seeing the teen relax and not trip once was a relief. The fact he didn't wince too badly when she gave him a set of keys so that he could visit whenever he wanted (either to the ranch, the Cavallone mansion, or to his own home) was merely the first step.

At least now he knew he had someone to turn to when things became overwhelming. Or when Reborn was being a bit too much for him to handle.


	11. Chapter 11

**Who else saw that epic eclipse earlier?**

* * *

Tsuna loved Harmony. She was like the mother figure he _should_ have had, but didn't. He treated the kids like his little siblings, and Lambo was clearly much happier playing with I-Pin, Harmony's adopted daughter.

The Chinese martial artist (I-Pin had made it clear to Fon that while she loved learning how to fight, the idea of using it to kill others made her uneasy...even if Harmony said she would love I-Pin regardless) was just as happy having Lambo around, even if he did tease her a bit.

She was patient, kind, and explained things in a way that made it easy to understand...especially homework.

Reborn was good, but he had never had to work with someone who was constantly belittled and mocked for years about their grades. Harmony had _lived_ through it, and mastered the art of dumbing down her homework so that it was a barely acceptable pass just to avoid her cousin doing worse than her.

Tsuna was used to negative reinforcement, and blowing him up or shooting him was only going to make him fight against actually learning anything.

Calm, positive reinforcement like what Harmony was giving him was actually giving him incentive to learn. She wasn't sarcastic when he got it right, and she helped him work out the problems whenever he got it wrong to figure out what he did and how to fix it.

The day he came home with a B instead of a near F, his mother nearly had a heart attack from shock.

To say nothing of the small confidence boosts Harmony was giving him, by having him help around the horses. He would openly admit the unicorns and pegasus were his immediate favorites. He was even allowed near the adult unicorns, though the younger ones would always sniff his pockets for treats without shame the second he showed up.

Doing hard work and seeing the results in the happy animals was raising his spirits considerably. Even if her rottweiler Pepper scared the hell out of him.

He didn't really like dogs much, though at least Pepper stayed on the other side of the ranch after he fell into the trough by accident when she came to greet him.

Harmony was clearly amused, but hadn't laughed at him for it. Instead she helped him up and properly introduced him to the dog.

Pepper was actually very friendly, and once he got used to her he didn't jump as much. But he still wasn't a fan of dogs.

Tsuna sometimes wondered if this was what it was like to have a mother who actually _cared_.

Nana was a wonderful person, and kept him fed and clothes...but she was very oblivious and pretended not to see reality.

She saw his cuts, bruises and sprains, and assumed he had been extra clumsy.

Harmony took one look at them and became pissed for his sake. She said nothing, but it was clear she was furious because she knew damn well what the signs of bullying were...she had been a victim herself years ago.

Which was when she introduced him to his new teacher Colonello. The tiny blond (who was cursed like Reborn but had a different Flame and background) was slowly teaching him Sambo and a few other martial arts he knew. Once he was able to get those down, Harmony would introduce him to I-Pin's teacher/father figure Fon. He was a master at hand to hand.

Colonello was a bit rough, much like Reborn, but he listened to Harmony and took it easy on Tsuna. It wasn't _his_ fault his father was a complete idiot who screwed him up so bad. Most of the clumsiness he had was from that stupid seal, though Harmony had high hopes that they could either remove it or break it completely.

He threw another hay bale into the paddocks, and smiled when the younger unicorns came up to see him.

He looked at his watch (charmed unbreakable by Harmony, so he didn't have to worry about it) and sighed.

He honestly preferred the peacefulness of the ranch to Namimori these days...even if he had to learn Italian as a consequence.

It was a small price to pay to have a safe haven from the chaos Reborn brought.

Tsuna walked through the new portal straight into the Cavallone mansion in Namimori.

(He heard that it was sometimes pronounced "Chiavarone" as well as "Cavallone" depending on where you asked.)

Waiting for him was a much calmer Gokudera and a slightly more serious Yamamoto.

Harmony had made it easier to connect with his Guardians after having a little talk with him.

She likened Gokudera as an angry leopard kitten, one that had been hurt far too often by his family and was very loyal. He just needed patience and someone willing to look past his tsundere behavior and he'd be a staunch ally and good friend.

The fact she had managed to track down recordings of Gokudera's mother when she was still playing had helped a lot to calm him down.

Tsuna was slowly starting to call him "Hayato", rather than Gokudera. The first time he did that, Gokudera had blushed hard and proven Harmony's suspicions that most of his blustering was a total act to hide his real self.

Yamamoto was a little easier. He was a lost dog who wanted a good master, one that was loyal and not afraid to end any enemies that came after Tsuna permanently. And while Tsuna disliked dogs, he had taken the warning that Rains tended to become very depressed without someone there to anchor them seriously. Takeshi's near suicide attempt was enough of a reminder.

He had laughed and tried to divert the topic when Tsuna slowly started calling him "Takeshi" rather than Yamamoto-kun. But Tsuna could see that he was really happy that his friend was calling him by his first name, rather than his surname.

As for Hibari... the image of the untouchable Demon Prefect _died_ a quick death the day Tsuna saw the older teen sitting calmly on the roof with the kids crawling all over him and Hedwig (Harmony's pet owl) sitting calmly on his shoulder and nuzzling him like a chick. It was hard to equate "uncaring and unstoppable Hibari" with the teen who liked small children and birds enough to let them 'crowd' him without complaint.

Oh, Tsuna wasn't stupid enough to think he could order Hibari around. But he treated the older boy like a great tiger with a lot of pride, one that preferred to loiter around the edges rather than get involved unless the enemy was strong enough to hold his interest.

Oddly enough it made Hibari drift closer to Tsuna's little group. Not enough to be seen as "one of them", but enough that he would at least be present.

Harmony explained that Clouds didn't really do the whole "clique" thing that most did. They were generally loners by nature, preferring to drift freely on the wind. It was why they were so rare and a complete pain in the ass to bring into a Sky.

Unless they were "inverted" like Skull, but he was something of a rarity too. He was a civilian with Active Flames that didn't know anything until Checkerface threw him in with the other Arcobaleno.

However when you had their loyalty... they were very possessive people who didn't like to share and barely tolerated the other Guardians. They were predisposed to create "territories" around people, ideals and places.

Case in point, Harmony and her ranch, or Hibari and the school.

As for Lambo... he was a lonely little calf (as Harmony generally called him) who lost his parents far too early and just wanted someone to pay attention to him.

It hadn't taken much for him to slowly start calling Nana "Auntie" rather than Mama, and attach himself to Harmony instead.

Harmony would listen to his ramblings and praise him when he got something right. But more importantly she intervened whenever Reborn got annoyed with him and went to hurt him.

Nana certainly never noticed it when Reborn kicked or hit Lambo. A fact the little boy took note of. She was a nice woman, but her mothering skills needed a lot of work.

It certainly didn't hurt that I-Pin was roughly the same age as him and not put off by all the explosives he used.

Tsuna suddenly snickered, remembering how Harmony had reacted when Lambo used the Ten Year Bazooka and had not only hit himself, but also I-Pin.

The fact Fon had been present when a fifteen-year-old I-Pin appeared was icing on the cake in his opinion.

* * *

 _Flashback_...

Lambo, having tripped while playing with I-Pin, pulled out a familiar pink bazooka, and to the alarm of Harmony hit himself and I-Pin who had come to help him up with the weapon.

There was a loud poof of pink smoke...only to reveal an older Lambo the same age as Tsuna and his group, and I-Pin wearing a traditional qipao and her hair in familiar braids. Though unlike Fon, she wore short boots rather than sandals.

I-Pin had taken one look at Harmony, beamed widely before tackling the older woman with a hug.

"Mama!"

Harmony had been baffled, at least until Lambo explained what happened.

"Sorry about that Mama. I guess my younger self used the ten-year bazooka again. It will wear off in five minutes," said Lambo sheepishly.

He was wearing a cow-print shirt and a light vest, with a necklace that had a pair of bull horns around his neck. His jeans were well worn, but well loved and his belt had an interesting buckle with the appearance of lightning striking the edges. He wore thick sandals on his feet, and he kept one eye closed. But he was tanned, as if he spent a lot of time outdoors.

Harmony hugged him as well, while I-Pin promptly cuddled with her 'father', much to the confusion and surprise of Fon.

"I forgot how cute you were back then, papa. You were smaller than I was," said I-Pin enthusiastically.

Fon blinked.

"You mean..."

"At some point, I don't recall _when_ , the curse gets broken. I think Mama got really mad at Checkerface and did something, but I don't remember what. But I still practice martial arts, in between classes," said I-Pin. "I think if I had stayed on the path of an assassin I would have given it up entirely, but I'm happy being a part time instructor at the dojo in Namimori."

Fon looked openly relieved. Not at the fact the curse would be broken...he had long come to terms with that. More at the fact that I-Pin wasn't forced to be an assassin when she was older.

"I'm proud of you," he said honestly. I-Pin hugged him harder, not that he minded.

It was nice to see what she would grow up to be like in ten years.

Meanwhile Lambo was clearly taking advantage of being the same height as his "Mama". Though what little he did slip about Nana was somewhat concerning.

"Auntie wasn't well, back then. I think _he_ did something he shouldn't have, but I was too little to know about the big stuff like that. We don't talk about _him_ or the Ninth generation. They really weren't happy when you revealed who and what you were, Mama."

"The old never do like it when the younger generation proves to be better and ironically wiser than them," she snorted.

"I almost forgot... you should tell Uncle Dino to look into an almost active Lightning building robots soon. He's in Italy and he's a genius with a candy fetish."

"A placeholder for you, in the event the rings are sent out early?" guessed Harmony.

Lambo couldn't say more, as he and I-Pin switched back with their younger selves.

I-Pin looked rather excited about her little trip, and Lambo laughed like the goofy little boy he was. He eagerly let Harmony pick him up and pat him on the head.

"Did you have fun?"

"Gahahaha! Lambo is the greatest!"

Harmony chuckled. Lambo and Skull were thick as thieves, as Skull had taken a liking to the boisterous little calf. It hadn't taken long for Skull to slowly corrupt Lambo into thinking they were brothers.

Though at least Lambo behaved around Harmony and the twins. He took the duty of being "big brother" to Ren and Diana (who were barely older than the Arcobaleno's appearance) very seriously.

 _Flashback end..._

* * *

"Boss!"

Tsuna didn't wince. He'd rather be called "boss" as opposed to "Tenth".

Thank the gods for Harmony and her effect on people!

"Hey Hayato," said Tsuna.

Hayato didn't blush this time, though it was a near thing. Tsuna wasn't the only one getting used to the change in how he addressed his Storm.

"Ah, Tsuna! There you are. I have good news... I've set up an appointment in Kyoto to get that seal checked out."

Flames were considered "soul fire" by the magical societies. Timoteo and Iemitsu were going to be in a _hell_ of a lot of trouble with the Japanese Ministry for sealing Tsuna.

It was a crime to seal away a magical gift, especially if the victim was an innocent child. Tsuna should have gotten training when he was younger, but hadn't because he had been missed by the runes to detect such things.

Tsuna perked up. He could _not_ wait to get rid of this damn seal. He never even thought about how he always felt so cold, at least until he started getting used to Harmony's hugs and Dino's gentle hair ruffling.

They were so warm, like a furo on a cold day.

Whenever he wasn't around them, he had started to notice he felt a little colder and the world seemed much more dim in comparison.

"I've already told Hibari-kun that I'm taking you out of the school for the day for medical reasons."

"I still don't get how you got him to behave like that so fast."

Harmony snickered.

"I told him I knew his grandfather, and that I could get Fon to treat him like a serious opponent rather than a small animal playing with an older carnivore like he usually does. That and I managed to hold him off with my taichi while he tried to cave my head in."

Hibari respected her because even though she wasn't a warrior, she treated him like a capable adult with a thing for small animals. That, and she always brought Hedwig with her. She would swear her owl was almost smitten with the rather violent teen.

Either way, Hibari was relatively calm around the "experienced omnivore."

* * *

The next morning Harmony picked Tsuna up. Nana had no idea what was going on, as they waited until he left the house.

"This is going to feel weird, and it's one of the reasons I created the key system in the first place," she said bluntly. She hugged Tsuna close to her, causing him to blush a little before she side-along apparated him to the nearest apparition point in Kyoto to the hospital.

Tsuna almost threw up.

"What _was_ that?"

"Apparition. Basically the magical version of teleportation. Be glad I didn't use a port key... it feels like something hooking into your navel and spinning you really fast, and Japan has abolished the floo network entirely. It's disconcerting enough getting into an active fireplace without the worry of getting out the wrong destination," said Harmony with a little sympathy.

Tsuna was horrified.

"Be glad you live in Japan. Britain is actually worse and still thinks it's the Victorian era when carriages were all the rage," deadpanned Harmony.

Tsuna gulped at the idea of dealing with people as backwards as _that_.

"Come along little Sky... we have an appointment to keep."

Tsuna followed her like a little duckling.


	12. Chapter 12

Tsuna sat in the lobby with a bored Harmony. He was looking around him with amazement, as he had limited exposure to magic before now.

"Potter-dono, we're ready to see you and your ward now," said the healer.

Tsuna looked at her oddly.

"Potter?"

"My maiden name. I listed you as my ward considering you have no legitimate magical guardian after what Iemitsu pulled. He lost all his privileges and rights to act on your behalf."

Tsuna actually felt relief hearing that. He knew Harmony would protect him.

The second the mediwizard (which was the magical equivalent of a doctor) found out about the seal, he damn near blew a gasket. Especially learning that Tsuna's own _father_ did this to him because he was too lazy to properly train his son.

Tsuna openly flinched, and was glad Harmony was allowed to stay.

Once Yamada-sensei got over his rather impassioned rant, he delivered the good news.

Reborn's bullets _were_ having a positive effect in removing the seal. All they needed to do was a simple purging ritual during the next full moon to completely remove it.

Fortunately they caught this before Tsuna was fifteen, which meant Harmony could arrange tutors to catch him up on his missing magical education. And he wouldn't be the only one suffering.

This wasn't the first time those with magical heritage went unnoticed because they were more predisposed to soul fire. Gokudera, Takeshi and surprisingly Ryohei were all going to suffer with Tsuna, since Hibari _was_ picked up in time to take the lessons.

Though he had long since passed the requirements and no longer bothered with his magical education.

He found 'magical herbivores' particularly irritating and avoided them.

* * *

 _One week later..._

The outpouring of Sky flames knocked several people on their ass, though Harmony wasn't among them.

She managed to coach Tsuna into reigning them in, and he promptly blacked out into her arms.

"Well that was interesting," said Reborn. He had to grab his hat very quickly to avoid having it (and Leon) blown away.

He could tell even from where he was that the seal was completely destroyed and Tsuna's Flames were finally free. He was going to have a rough week while he readjusted to having them free again.

Marauder's Ranch was isolated enough that he could figure out how to handle it without accidentally luring in other Flames (except his Guardians) and driving them mad.

That and Xanxus was going to be staying the entire week to help Tsuna learn how to access his Flames properly without the special bullets.

He had only agreed to help train Tsuna for one reason. It was a big "Screw You" to Iemitsu and the Ninth.

* * *

Tsuna woke up with a groan. Ever since he had the seal removed, his body had been going haywire.

His 'clumsiness' wasn't entirely gone, but at least with Fon's patient help he was becoming a lot more coordinated than he had been for years. He actually felt _warm_ , instead of the almost freezing he had grown used to. His mind no longer felt like it was scrambled up whenever he tried to read his text books, though he still had a lot of migraines.

And the less said about his inability to reign in his harmony factor, the better. Any control he had over his Flames were shot to hell.

He didn't bother to try and sleep in. He knew for a fact it was pointless. He had far too much energy to work with now, and he found his apathy to everything was quickly dissipating.

"Tsuna, time to wake up. Your teacher is here," said Harmony.

He got up and got dressed in his casual clothes.

And almost felt the urge to bolt when he saw his teacher in how to use Flames.

Dino and Harmony helped where they could, but they were often busy.

So Harmony called in someone who was part of the Vongola, but had no reason to love the main house or the idiot.

"Tsuna, this is Xanxus. He's the head of the independent assassination division of the Vongola known as the Varia and has just as much reason to hate Iemitsu and the Ninth as you do. Xanxus, please remember what we talked about. No serious maiming and absolutely no _killing_ ," said Harmony firmly.

Tsuna looked at Xanxus curiously and took note of some familiar feathers. Including a white one with black specks.

He recognized it as one of Hedwig's and relaxed slightly. He couldn't be that bad if Harmony gave him one of her beloved owl's feathers.

Xanxus looked him over and wasn't very impressed. But then again, he was also well aware of how badly the seal would have screwed up the kid's development, on top of the fact he was relentlessly bullied by his peers until Reborn showed up. And that wasn't getting into the fact his mother completely missed her son's issues, thus screwing him up further.

He wouldn't dismiss the brat as complete trash out of hand...but he wouldn't go easy on him either.

Though he would openly admit to cackling at Tsuna's reaction to meeting Squalo.

The teen had taken one look at his long haired Rain and yelled while pointing in disbelief...

"Holy shit, it's Sephiroth!"

Dead silence.

"Voi! Who the fuck is Sephiroth?" demanded Squalo.

Tsuna couldn't help his staring, but he quickly grabbed his phone and looked up the infamous _Final Fantasy VII_ villain.

Xanxus took one look at the picture, then at Squalo, then back at the picture. Then he started to laugh, hard.

"I can see the resemblance, Shark Trash," he said laughing his ass off.

Girly silver hair, long sword and leather fetish... yeah, he could completely see where Tsuna was coming from calling Squalo "Sephiroth".

Squalo took a good look at the picture himself and scowled.

"Voi! It's not funny dammit!"

Harmony was laughing herself...in between sending that text to Belphegor. Within minutes it was shared with the rest of the Varia Elite and trending like mad.

A picture of Squalo's face photoshopped onto Sephiroth's body, complete with his customary "VOI!" was soon making the rounds throughout the Cosa Nostra, and Dino about choked on his drink when he first saw it.

Squalo would never live it down, to his annoyance.

* * *

Hibari noticed an immediate difference with the small animal known as Tsunayoshi. He was already filing the forms to drop the "Sawada" surname completely in favor of one yet to be decided.

He wouldn't take the Cavallone name, but he refused to be known as "Iemitsu and Nana's son" any longer.

While he did care for his birth mother, he was sick of her pretending everything was normal and not seeing reality. With any luck the shock of losing her son would snap her out of whatever was wrong with her.

If not, Harmony was going to drag Nana to the same specialists to have her checked over. That amount of obliviousness to her son's injuries was _not_ normal in any sense. Not when she genuinely seemed to care for him at the same time.

Especially since Nana seemed far too blasé about the fact Iemitsu _never_ came home save for his once-in-a-blue-moon week-long visits.

Tsuna was no longer a skittish kitten. There was an actual spine now and his grades were now firmly in the low C's to high B's range, rather than the barely passing.

And when questioned by the snide teacher who accused him of cheating (who was soon fired after), the school was given the 'official' explanation of why his behavior had shifted.

Needless to say the rumor mill spread the story within hours.

The official story, complete with documents made by the magical hospital, was that Tsuna's father had been roughhousing with his son and tossing him in the air without properly catching him when he was very young. During one such incident, he was distracted and Tsuna took a rather nasty hit to the head, which caused some major inflammation and he was never treated properly. As a result, there was a nasty injury that was never seen since Nana never took her son in for treatment over the years.

His Uncle on his father's side visited and noticed the issue, and had Harmony take him in for a full physical, thus revealing the real problem.

Tsuna had spent an entire week recovering from severe headaches and having to deal with coordination issues.

Naturally Iemitsu and Nana Sawada had lost all custody rights to their son in favor of Harmony Cavallone, who was acting on behalf of Tsuna's concerned uncle.

Tsuna was now living in the Cavallone house, rather than his old home. And thanks to the key system he could go between there, the ranch and the Varia mansion for training with no one the wiser.

At least it got most of the bullying to drop off, and the teachers were laying off his old grades.

Finding out that the school's worst student had a medical condition that made him that way was a sobering thought and forced people to think about their actions towards him.

At the very least he was more or less left alone now.

Even if his crush on Kyoko died a natural death after the talk Harmony _and_ Xanxus had with him about the matter.

* * *

 _Flashback..._

"So let me get this straight. You like Ryohei's little sister Kyoko, but you've never actually talked to her outside of the times you're influenced by the bullet," said Harmony slowly.

"She was one of the few girls who never openly mocked me or said any of the cruel jokes at my expense and she's the class idol," said Tsuna wilting.

Xanxus snorted.

"You'd be better off waiting until you got out of high school before you try dating. How is she with her brother's boxing habit?"

Tsuna winced.

"I heard from Ryohei that his sister hates violence and she thinks his sport is just men running around in their underwear with thick gloves. He has to keep the fact he sometimes joins in pit fights from her."

Harmony put a hand on his shoulder.

"If she can't handle something as tame as boxing, then she will be eaten alive if you tried to bring her into the mafia. Though considering Ryohei is your Sun Guardian, she might get roped in eventually. And don't get me started on that Haru girl who thought Reborn was an innocent."

Miura Haru was a delusional girl who had a weird fixation on small children. She had a rather limited world view and was only nice to Tsuna because he saved her from her own idiocy.

Tsuna winced.

"The mafia world is full of sharks. Harmony gets by because she's even more deadly than she looks and people underestimate her because they think she's a civilian. But this girl wouldn't last five minutes in our world. You think school is tough? Try amping it up to a hundred and you get an idea of what it's like," said Xanxus with a snort.

"More like a thousand. Women can destroy each other with words," said Harmony, rolling her eyes. "Tell me Tsuna, what do you really know about Kyoko and why you like her?"

Tsuna tried to mentally think of why he liked Kyoko, before he slumped realizing that all he had was something that could only amount to a passing crush.

Never mind the fact Ryohei might actually come after him for trying to date his sister.

Harmony patted him on the head.

"Love when you're a teenager can be even more fickle than when you're an adult. You're still growing up, it's alright if the one for you is still out there, waiting for you to find her," said Harmony gently.

Tsuna nodded. Everyone liked to call Dino-nii a "Lucky bastard"...and he was, in more ways than one. He found Harmony completely by accident and they were a perfect fit almost from day one.

 _Flashback end..._

* * *

Hibari had also noted that Tsuna was a lot more coordinated, and moved with an almost silent grace that came from training. Real training, like the kind he went through years ago.

It didn't take much for him to guess who was behind that. He knew the female omnivore had Fon staying with her, and she was helping to raise the man's apprentice.

Thankfully for his sanity, I-Pin didn't confuse him with Fon. He could tolerate her calling him "big brother", since she viewed Fon as a father figure.


	13. Chapter 13

**We have a total of TWO running gags in this chapter! See if you can spot them! ;)**

* * *

Tsuna took one look at Fuuta, and started a mass dialing session. He soon had the poor kid sequestered behind the Cavallone mansion's security.

"Now explain to me why you came to me first."

"You're ranked as number two for someone who wouldn't refuse the request of small children, your ambition is at dead last for a mafioso, and you're connected to someone who owns the best hiding place for those who need protection from the mafia while staying connected to it," said Fuuta, showing his book to Tsuna.

Tsuna mentally translated that to: "You're a nice guy who won't use me for my abilities and close enough to Harmony to get me to safety."

Harmony came through the door, and immediately went into mothering mode.

And when the Todd familigia tried to press the issue... well, they soon found a reason to vacate the area. Harmony did not tolerate idiots who tried to use small children for their own gain.

 _Outside the mansion_

Harmony walked out of the mansion armed with a cross look.

The lead thug sneered at her.

"Hand over the Ranking Prince. Your husband isn't here to protect you."

Harmony looked down on him with the imperial aura of a Queen who was most displeased with intruders on her land.

"That would imply that I need him to protect me in the first place, fool."

With a mere flick of her wrist, a polished stick slid easily into her right hand. It was eleven inches long and made of holly.

It wasn't until she started casting hexes that one of the men swore.

"Shit...she's a witch!"

"Not just any witch, you simpering morons... You pissed off a witch with the highest scores in attack spells in recent history!" she snarled.

It didn't take much for her to reduce the thugs into a whimpering mess on the ground. Some of them had said comments which earned a castration hex normally used on animals. It could be reversible, but she wasn't feeling merciful at the moment.

Tsuna watched the whole thing with wide-eyed awe...and no little amount of masculine fear from the castration hexes. He wasn't the only one, though Dino didn't look _that_ terrified of his wife.

More like the opposite, which had Reborn rolling his eyes...while wincing in sympathy along with almost every man who had seen what that particular spell did in a show of masculine sympathy.

"Why aren't you freaking out over that?" asked Tsuna.

"Simple. If she's pissed at me I only have to suffer sleeping in a separate bed for a night or a show of public humiliation on par with some of Reborn's pranks," said Dino. He had a strange grin on his face. "Word to the wise, little brother... when you get married, the best way to keep your wife from using something like _that_ on you when she's pissed is to make sure she has more reasons _not_ to use it."

Tsuna blushed horribly, which had Reborn chuckling darkly...before a thought occurred to him.

"Tsuna... did anyone give you the Talk yet?" asked Reborn slowly.

Tsuna blinked in confusion. He had missed a certain class that was mandatory for all the boys in the school when they first joined middle school. He had been skipping after a particularly horrible case of bullying the day before, not wanting to show his face after how humiliated he had felt. Though he had noticed most of his male classmates had some weird expressions for a month after, as did several of the girls who would blush and have trouble looking at them in the face.

And the less said about his adult role models until Reborn came, the better.

He did wonder why his voice was starting to crack a little though.

"What talk?"

Reborn and Dino groaned in unison.

"I can see what we'll be doing later... better check and see if the others have had it. I'm pretty sure Takeshi at least heard it from his dad, or will soon," said Dino. This was going to be awkward as hell, he could just tell.

Though he could consider it a practice run for when Ren was older.

Tsuna looked completely confused.

Fuuta was just happy he was around people who weren't after him for his book, and were more than happy to take him in as a normal kid. Within a week he was already treating I-Pin, Lambo and the twins like his siblings.

And yes, he was completely taken by the unicorns and other horses.

* * *

Tsuna's face was solid red, and he wasn't the only one. Hayato looked completely mortified, as did Ryohei.

Takeshi, the lucky bastard, already had this discussion with his father and didn't have to go through it a second time.

Hibari knew about all this already (having been taken aside by Fon when it first started, thus making his mood that year even more foul and angry than usual) so he was allowed to skip out on it.

Reborn and Dino hadn't just settled for the embarrassing talk... oh no, they brought _pictures_ and _diagrams_. If it wasn't for the fact that Dino generally didn't get involved in Reborn's schemes, having been a victim himself once, Tsuna would have thought Reborn was doing this to screw with him.

Hayato wasn't able to skip out, as he had been living alone when it started and Shamal hadn't bothered to track him down to explain it to him. He was too busy trying to avoid Bianchi at the time.

Ryohei was sick that week, and everyone had thought he had gotten the talk from his parents. Upon learning he hadn't, he had been dragged in as well.

"I think I'm going to be sick," said Hayato, looking a little green.

Tsuna was too embarrassed to speak.

"Would you rather it have been Bianchi or Nana who told you about this?" said Reborn sarcastically. "Or better yet, Iemitsu?"

The mere _thought_ of that made the two grimace.

Better to get the details from Reborn and Dino than hear it from the girls. Nana was oblivious and hadn't even noticed her son was going through the change, Bianchi made Hayato get stomach cramps just from seeing her face and Iemitsu had managed to screw up his apprentice Basil to the point he could only speak Japanese like something out of a samurai drama from the old days and called the man Master of all things.

Didn't mean they were going to be able to look at any of the girls for a week though.

Dino looked at them with sympathy.

"I'm pretty sure we could do some camping or something until you can process this. Good thing we did this on a weekend," said Dino.

Seeing the hopeful looks of the trio, Dino chuckled.

A guy's weekend sounded like a great deal of fun, and he was sure he could rope Colonello into joining.

It didn't take much to convince Takeshi to join in, or Fon for that matter. Harmony was planning to spend a girl's weekend with Bianchi and I-Pin, with Romario and the rest of Dino's Guardians keeping an eye on the twins.

* * *

 _In the mountains..._

The embarrassment of the Talk was slowly fading away as they walked into the mountains. It was good to get away from society for a while... and any girls.

Tsuna managed to avoid blushing. Barely.

Dino chuckled and threw an arm around his shoulder.

"Relax little brother. Everyone goes through this at some point in their life. It could have been worse. A lot worse."

Tsuna let go of the little bit of tension in shoulders. It was easier to see Dino as an older brother figure, with Reborn acting as his father figure.

Reborn had grumbled about not coddling his students, but Tsuna knew he cared. He cared a lot.

He was just weird about showing it. Xanxus was the same way.

The fact they had given them the blunt truth about puberty and the changes they would either be going through, or already had, was proof of that.

At least Reborn had been a _little_ sympathetic when he found out that Tsuna was just starting them, and hadn't known to ask. He had been royally screwed over by Iemitsu's stupidity and Nana's inability to handle reality.

And really, he was starting to become suspicious of Nana's reaction to the fact Tsuna wasn't even living at the house.

She _wasn't_. It was like she thought he was having sleepovers and forgot to come home or something. Or like she didn't have a son in the first place, and was going through the motions from when he was five.

He made a note to speak to Harmony the first chance he had.

Harmony managed to corral the ditsy Nana to the specialist with help from Bianchi.

Ironically it was the same doctor as before, and once again he went almost ballistic after he assessed her condition.

"What's the verdict, and how badly are we going to hurt Iemitsu for this travesty?" asked Harmony bluntly.

"She is completely caught in a delusion. She believes her son is still the small child before the seal was placed, and that he is merely 'clumsy' rather than acknowledge her own faults as a parent for not stepping in. She honestly has trouble realizing exactly HOW long her 'husband' has spent away from her, thinking it was merely a few days ago," reported Yamada-sensei. He was _pissed_. "Worst is that I have no idea if this can be reversed. The delusion is self-sustaining at this point and might very well be permanent."

Tsuna winced at the diagnosis. He knew his mother was overly oblivious, but he had no idea it was this bad.

"In all honesty, it's a very good thing that you removed him from the home before further damage was done. You're on the right path to recovering from the trauma that's been inflicted on you from that damn seal, though I have no idea if the same can be said of your mother."

"So can I legally file for a restraining order on Iemitsu and request that he be arrested on sight?" asked Harmony hopefully. Would serve that moron right, and the magical authorities wouldn't give a damn about his crimes in the mundane society.

Odds were the Vindice might even join in once they found out how badly Iemitsu screwed the pooch.

Actually...

"After this, he's going to have a bounty on his head big enough to attract the real movers and players," growled Yamada-sensei.

The crimes Iemitsu had committed on his so-called family were _major_ ones that would have had him thrown into Azkaban for life at the very LEAST in England.

"Be careful...he's an Italian yakuza and he won't go quietly," said Harmony.

"Thank you for the warning. Fortunately we're used to dealing with Soul Fire users who don't take the hint. At the worst we'll seal _his_ Flames with something a bit more permanent than what was used on his son."

Iemitsu was going to be in for a very nasty surprise when he dared to step foot in Japan again.

As it was, Tsuna's official residence was now the mansion and partly the ranch.

Tsuna didn't even comment on the fact Harmony called in his Guardians. Out of all of them, Hayato could sympathize the most with the whole situation.

After all, most of this was Iemitsu's fault, and there was very little chance his mother would be able to break free of whatever caused this in the first place. She would never be able to protect herself from the mafia, or see him as anything other than the child he once was before the seal.

It was a good thing that all the beds were so big, because Tsuna spent the next week crying himself to sleep while using his Storm as a giant teddy bear. It didn't hurt that Fuuta and Lambo took up his other side, using their age as a weapon against any possible protests from the teens.

* * *

Dino took a long pull of his booze. He didn't drink often, especially after the twins were born, but this definitely warranted it.

"What a damn mess."

"Tell me about it," said Xanxus in disgust. As if his opinion of Sawada couldn't sink any lower.

"At least we got to him in time," said Reborn, swiping a glass for himself.

"Personally I can't wait until that wife of yours comes out and kicks his ass for the damage he did," said Xanxus flatly.

Dino smirked openly, radiating chaos. Reborn approved.

"I already paid Mammon to handle the cameras and everything else when Harmony loses her patience and finally decides it's time to put the idiots in their place. I really can't wait to see Timoteo or Iemitsu's face when they realize she's an Active Sky and bonded to four Arcobaleno including Reborn."

Reborn snorted darkly and Xanxus grunted with approval.

"By the way... who started that whole joke about Squalo being a Sephiroth fan boy?" asked Dino.

Xanxus snorted, and almost had the booze go down the wrong way.

"Blame Tsuna. He took one look at him and immediately thought he was Sephiroth. Then your wife went and shared it with the prince trash in between laughing her ass off."

Dino choked, laughing.

Trust someone who spent a lot of time playing RPG's to recognize that sort of resemblance. And a Marauder's daughter for sharing it with the man's coworkers.

Squalo still couldn't get rid of those pictures, and Belphegor took great pleasure in making more of them just to piss him off.


	14. Chapter 14

**Just a reminder that I do have a go fund me page. Just add _tsukis-vet-visit_ after the .com part. It's alright if you can't donate today...sharing helps as well!**

* * *

Tsuna was doing his magical history homework when he found something that had him blink a few times in surprise.

"What? Um, excuse me sensei?"

"Yes Tsuna-san?"

"Who is Harmony Potter?"

"Harmony Potter-Black is the known as 'Girl-Who-Lived' for surviving the killing curse. Supposedly she killed the 'dark lord', though recent events in England dispute this. No one is sure where she is now, though is a so-called prophecy stating that she will defeat the current Dark Lord in England, though that is up for debate. For example, it could be another Oedipus case," said the teacher.

"Oedipus?" said Tsuna.

"Greek myth. A child named Oedipus was given a prophecy at birth to kill his father and marry his mother. His parents were so horrified that they sent him away to be abandoned. He was found by a goat herder and given to another king and queen. Naturally he found out about the prophecy and left his kingdom, not knowing he was adopted. On his journey he killed a man at a crossroads and eventually came across a kingdom plagued by a sphinx... the reward for defeating it was that he would marry the queen. So he answered the riddle correctly and the sphinx died and he became a king who had three daughters," said Hayato.

He had heard of the myth and looked it up.

Tsuna didn't need much to guess what happened, as he was already turning green.

"The man he killed was his father and the queen was his mother, wasn't she?" he asked.

"Yeah. They didn't find out until a plague hit and the same oracle told them to go look for who killed the last king. When Oedipus found out what happened he was so horrified he cut out his own eyes for being blind to the truth and the queen killed herself," said Hayato.

"That is horrifying."

"Well, the Greeks have a few myths like that," said Hayato.

"In any case, Oedipus is a well known and documented example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they had kept their son and explained things, then chances are that he never would have completed it," said the teacher.

"So Harmony Potter is missing?" asked Tsuna.

"Her current location is unknown, but she did clearly state to the English fools that she was _not_ going to be another Oedipus case and to 'clean up their own mess', to quote the statement she sent to every country. Considering their own papers ran the gambit of golden girl to delusional child who cries wolf back to savior, it's little surprise she got fed up with their stupidity and refuses to go back," said the teacher without any sympathy.

So long as Voldemort kept to the UK, the other nations were content to let the English sort out their own damn problems. But if he tried to expand past those borders a lot of people were going to remind him that they weren't sheep like the English fools.

Tsuna nodded and finished the assignment. Magic was fascinating, and at the same time occasionally terrifying.

Though he did bring up their history assignment when he came home.

"We had an interesting topic for magical history today," said Tsuna.

"Oh?" asked Harmony, already dolling out the food. Dino was distracting the twins, who were a bit rowdy. They were almost bigger than Reborn was now, but then again they were nearly three years old.

"We were focusing on modern history and the teacher was discussing how the 'girl-who-lived' nearly became a classic Oedipus," he said.

Harmony jolted.

"What."

"What's a classic Oedipus?" asked Dino. He knew the old legend but didn't get why his wife reacted like that.

"Oedipus is a warning example of a self-fulfilling prophecy in magical history," explained Hayato. "Apparently there was a similar one focused on Harmony Potter-Black, and she only avoided it by leaving the country entirely."

Dino eyed his wife oddly.

"Is this why you hate England so much?"

"Part of it, but most of it was because all my memories of the country were bad. I have only a few good ones and they were so far and few in between it wasn't worth sticking around," she replied. Her expression went flat and cold. _"Dumbledore_ (she spat out the name like it was a vile disease) didn't want someone to replace him. He wanted to pretend he was the sheep herder of England's magical flock with me as the one acting as the guard dog at the door ready to commit violence against anyone who tried to disturb the status quo."

Dino's eyes went hard at the implications of that. Tsuna and the others winced.

"Civilians are only able to sleep in peace with their laws because there are men and women ready and willing to commit violence to protect them from danger," quoted Hayato, wincing. It sounded like the so-called 'Leader of the Light' in England wanted to force Harmony into becoming one of those people, and she disagreed.

"Yes, well the Order of the Phoenix certainly didn't expect me to tell them to sit on it and spin when they tried to emotionally blackmail me into solving their problems for them. And Dumbledore was in a magical coma when they visited," said Harmony flatly. Her eyes sparkled with a dark malicious amusement. "And they definitely didn't expect the likes of Reborn and the other who were all too happy to commit violence for my sake if it meant telling them to get lost."

* * *

Tsuna was heading to the kitchen when he heard it. The sound of someone throwing up their guts.

He was quick to go investigate...only to find Harmony bent over the sink.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. This is actually _normal_ , though I'm going to keep it quiet from Dino for a while," she said, once she got over it.

"Normal?" repeated Tsuna.

Harmony gave him an amused look.

"Dino and Reborn did give you boys the 'talk', right?"

Tsuna blushed with embarrassment at the reminder. Then he realized what she meant and stared.

Harmony put a finger to her lips with an amused grin.

"I'll let you know when I tell him, so you can record him fainting again. He nearly had a heart attack the last time," said Harmony.

Tsuna snickered.

Needless to say he watched with open amusement as Harmony kept dropping tiny hints that had Reborn frowning and Gokudera confused.

* * *

Harmony was out getting groceries when she was knocked out. Fortunately they only clipped her on the head, rather than anywhere near her stomach.

She woke up in a decrepit room that was falling apart, and a group of three teens and someone from Italy she vaguely recognized.

The blond Sun was talking to the one who's hair looked like a pineapple.

"Mukuro-sama, she smells funny."

Harmony blinked.

The leader of the group, who had dual-colored eyes, blinked at his lackey. He ignored Harmony, because his Rain and the only adult mafioso were standing near the only viable exit.

"Smells funny how?" he asked.

"She smells like animals and something else."

"That could be because I'm considered a civilian who is only married to a mafioso," she said dryly. "And I happen to raise several different varieties of horses."

Mukuro blinked, before he sneered at her.

"A civilian in the mafia?"

Harmony's lips quirked up.

"Not my fault if the Vongola is so full of idiots they haven't picked up on what I actually am yet. Only my husband and a few select others have. And have you really sunk to the level of a mafia thug that you'd kidnap a woman like that?" she shot back dryly.

Mukuro glared at her.

"I am not some petty mafioso," he snarled.

"No, you're a survivor and the leader of this little group of yours," she countered bluntly. She gave the blond Sun an odd look. "And how do you know I smell funny?"

The boy blushed under her gaze without realizing it.

"I carried you to where Lancia was," he muttered.

"Well thank you for going for the head, rather than the stomach," she commented.

The Rain behind her was clearly very perceptive, because he was the first to figure it out.

"She's pregnant."

Mukuro looked like he had been shot in the gut, before he whipped his head towards her in shock.

"What?!"

"Only two months along, so you can relax. But I hope you don't mind dealing with someone that has morning sickness."

Harmony enjoyed the chaos of that little tidbit as Mukuro clearly didn't want anything to do with dealing with a pregnant woman, much less the fact she was likely to be puking her guts out at irregular intervals. However he couldn't just let her go, because she would know where they were and tell the mafioso.

Harmony stood up and went over to the clearly panicking Mist.

She gently put her hand under his chin, making him meet her eyes.

"Look at me. Take a few deep breaths and calm down," she said soothingly. "I'm not going to call in my husband or my Elements to take you or your friends out. Not before I get an explanation on why you think this is an acceptable hide out."

Mukuro, oddly enough, followed her advice and took a few deep breaths to calm down.

"Better? Now, tell me why you thought it was a good idea to kidnap a mafioso's wife like this," she said gently.

What she heard had her radiating motherly fury, and it was only worsened by her hormones.

"You mean to tell me that the entire reason you three are being chased is because some sick bastards experimented on you, and a familigia took you in without taking into account that you would have PTSD from your previous situation?! Are they bloody morons?! This is on the Vongola's level of stupid!"

As if in response to her fury, the Vindice showed up.

Apparently even the terrifying guard dogs of the Cosa Nostra weren't about to cross a pregnant Sky who also happened to be a witch. They were at least willing to listen to her counterarguments and investigate before they arrested the teens.

Though Mukuro had to release Lancia if they even wanted a chance to avoid being arrested.

Mukuro wasn't the only one beyond confused when he found himself and his two minions being dragged all the way to the Cavallone mansion in Namimori and given a proper meal, with stern orders from Harmony to use the baths and clean up for the first time since they left Italy.

Though seeing the Cavallone Decimo almost have a heart attack at seeing them at the dinner table made it worth it. Almost.

"Harmony-nee, where were you today? Colonello was about ready to send out search parties and Skull was upset that you couldn't join in the movie marathon," asked Tsuna.

"Well, I had to clear up a misunderstanding with the Vindice about whether or not Mukuro and his friends here deserved to be arrested. After all, it was only polite after they proved to be such good company," she said impishly.

Dino wasn't the only one choking. Mukuro was as well, and he gave Harmony a very incredulous look.

"You were near the _Vindice_?!" said Dino horrified.

"Well unlike the English idiots, they at least gave me a chance to explain my reasoning before they dragged them off to prison. That's more of a chance than Sirius ever got," said Harmony flatly.

Mukuro eyed Harmony oddly.

"You are a strange, strange woman."

Tsuna snickered. Then he saw the looks Reborn was giving Harmony and she nodded. He was quick to get a camera and was even nice enough to hand one to Mukuro too. The reaction was sure to be worth the cost of loaning him his spare.

"Well, it only comes with the territory. Especially since I'm two months along," she dropped.

Dino's reaction to that was immediate. His head whipped to his wife and he didn't even register the sound of the cameras going off. Mukuro was snickering openly at the look on his face.

"Wha... You're pregnant again?" he said in shock.

Reborn snorted.

"Stupid Dino, the two of you go at it like rabbits almost _every_ week. Is it really that much of a shock?"

"I thought you were..." started Dino, running his hand through his blond hair.

Harmony snorted.

"I haven't taken any potions or pills to prevent it since I left England. It was just luck that it hadn't happened _sooner_ after I had the twins, though it's possible my magic decided I was healthy enough to have more."

Dino fainted.

Harmony snickered and looked at the grinning Tsuna and chuckling Mukuro.

"That was hilarious, byon!" said Ken snickering.

"How was dinner, by the way? I haven't made fish and chips in some time," said Harmony.

"It was good," said Chikusa quietly.

It was the best thing they had ever had. It was obviously made with love and attention to detail, and the food was just the right crispy texture.

"Oh good. Reborn, would you like the honors of waking my husband up, or do you think I should just get the ice water in the kitchen?"

Reborn was quick to get up and grab a pair of defibrillator paddles.

"Clear," he said with sadistic glee.

"GAH!"

Harmony snickered and Tsuna winced with sympathy. Reborn could be an ass.


	15. Chapter 15

News about Harmony being pregnant spread like wildfire, with her permission anyway.

Once again she set the Vongola's "baby gift" on fire with far too much glee.

She didn't care _what_ it was, but she was making a clear statement she didn't like the current leader at all.

Dino had already made it abundantly clear he would only support the Vongola _Decimo_ , whichever one successfully inherited the title. Vongola Nono had screwed up far too many times in recent years for him to trust the old man, and the less said about Iemitsu the better.

"Holy shit, it's Sephiroth!" said Ken when Squalo came to visit...with the Varia's congratulation gift.

Squalo immediately turned to see who the hell said that damn name, only to stop short in surprised confusion.

"Voi. What the hell are those three doing here?"

"Long story short, they made the mistake of kidnapping Harmony, and she managed to get the full story. The Vindice even handed them over to her custody after she scared them so badly," said Reborn.

And wasn't that a sight to see... the Vindice of all people trembling at the thought of Harmony coming after them with her motherly rage amplified by pregnancy hormones just because they were trying to arrest three kids who were actually victims of the darker side of the mafia.

It didn't make up for what they did to Lancia's Family, but when Harmony explained _why_ it happened, he had understood. He would prefer to avoid Mukuro permanently if he had a choice though.

Mukuro and his two minions were _still_ getting used to the gentle, but firm, motherly influence in their lives.

Harmony knew damn well what he was going through, having a traumatic past of her own that made her leery of positive affection. And unlike a certain red haired witch, she wasn't about to smother the hell out of them and stuff them full of food.

Instead she did the smart thing.

She started with small things, like giving them their own room (and an extra big bed, at least until they were used to sleeping away from each other) and started feeding them healthy meals regularly in portions they could stand without overdoing it.

Like so many others, she gave them a key to the ranch and let them slowly rebuild their trust in humanity through the animals.

Ken had fallen in love with the pegasus and thestrals, while Chikusa seemed to have a thing for the centaurs and their interpretation of the stars. Firenze didn't mind the quiet audience of one, and explained things to the silent Rain at night.

Mukuro was the worst off, but he did seem to relax around Harmony the most.

A survivor could always recognize one of their own after all.

She got him to slowly open up what they did to him, and never showed him an ounce of pity about what happened.

Sympathy, empathy and love, yes, but never pity. The fact she opened up about her own abuse and neglect helped a lot.

She understood his pain far too well, but at least he had Ken and Chikusa. She had no one, and everyone expected her to just bend over and save them regardless of the sacrifice she would have to make in the process.

Dino...honestly had no idea his wife suffered this much before he met her. It made him a little extra clingy on top of his overprotective nature when she revealed she was pregnant again.

She put up with it with good humor. Mostly because she loved him dearly and he learned the hard way the first time around that her Cloud instincts would make everyone suffer big time if she felt like she was being put into a gilded cage because of her condition.

Equus would never submit to anyone, especially when they were protecting children.

Mukuro would prove himself to be more than just a homicidal teen with a revenge streak a mile wide when he brought home a girl who could have passed for his slightly younger sister two weeks after Harmony basically adopted the three of them.

Nagi acted so much like what Neville had been like before the meager confidence boost that came from being friends with an Active Sky like Harmony that it was almost painful to watch.

So instead of trying to mother her right away, Harmony decided Nagi could use a real treat...and it would surprise the boys.

* * *

 _A few days later..._

Nagi was slowly getting used to the mansion (Tsuna was a big help there) when they were all told to go outside to the rather large back yard. Everyone, including the rather intimidating Hibari-san who still didn't understand how the omnivore convinced him to come in the first place.

It might have had something to do with Dino promising him a no-holds-barred spar with his primary weapon that did it. Watching the blond take out a few minor yakuza with his whip had gotten Hibari's blood pumping in anticipation of challenging the older man to a proper fight.

Tsuna looked around.

"Where's Harmony-nee?"

A loud whinny was heard, and they all looked to where the sound was coming from.

Only for a gorgeous black unicorn to literally appear out of the sky, orange flames dancing along their hooves. It pranced along the clouds for a bit before it smoothly came back to earth.

Nagi was gaping openly, and couldn't really do more than stare when the unicorn came right up to her and nuzzled her hair.

Tsuna was the first to figure it out.

"Harmony-nee?"

The unicorn seemed to snicker... and when it walked through a pair of Sakura trees it shifted from the beautiful mare into Harmony.

"What... how?" asked Ken in shock.

"Animagus transformation?" asked Tsuna at the same time.

"Got it in one, Tsuna. I'm a rare breed of magical horse known as a shadow unicorn. It's remarkably similar to a normal one, except it has a few extra abilities. Or it's just me... I've never been able to figure out how I can do a certain trick of mine, but at least Sky flames allow me to fly in that form without restrictions," said Harmony.

Nagi stared in awe.

"Unicorns are real?" she asked with a hopeful tone.

"You're about to step into a much bigger and beautiful world, little Mist," said Harmony gently.

"Yeah, wait until you meet Quest and his herd," said Tsuna enthusiastically. "I swear they've practically decided I-Pin is one of their fillies."

Nagi almost fainted when she met Quest and his herd. Within minutes all the unicorns on the ranch came right up to her and almost overwhelmed the poor thing.

Fortunately Mukuro was able to get them to disperse... Nagi almost fainted.

Instead she was laying down on the outside swing, too overwhelmed to properly register she had her head in Mukuro's lap. It didn't help that she had a damp cloth over her eyes to ease the headache she had.

"You two are adorable together. Though we really need to do a blood test, considering your appearance is _that_ close..." said Harmony with a smile.

"I wasn't expecting them to just crowd me like that."

"And they should know better... but they probably just saw an injured child and decided to go into protective mode," said Harmony rolling her eyes. "They _know_ this ranch is a sanctuary, so their reaction was over the top, especially since I'm here as well with the others. At worst they would have herded you to the forest to the centaurs."

Mukuro stiffened.

"Don't they hate people?"

"I'm fairly sure they would consider her an abused filly, rather than as a human. She's too timid to set the more angry ones off and Firenze would have made sure she stayed away from the village. But it's still a good thing you got her away from the herd before it got to that point, just in case."

Mukuro didn't know what this feeling was in his chest, but he did somewhat like it. It was almost warm, and felt strangely similar to the way Tsuna's Sky flames made him feel.

He could tolerate Tsuna's presence because the boy had bluntly told him of the hell he had gone through until Reborn showed up and eventually brought Harmony to fix things. It was hard to think of the boy as a privileged brat who didn't know suffering when he literally had no support and was constantly bullied and belittled every day since the seal was applied on his FATHER'S orders, until Harmony paid to have it removed.

Though he did get a lot of amusement with needling Hibari, who seemed to take just as much fun in fighting him.

The two of them were like oil and water sometimes. So long as they didn't do too much damage to their surroundings (thus forcing Harmony to bail them out either financially or jail) they were free to beat the crap out of each other.

Harmony called it "male bonding to the point of ridiculous" and left it at that.

She probably had a point.

* * *

Harmony stared at the results, and again for a second time.

If he wasn't dead, she would have strangled him barehanded for the mess he left her to clean up.

"Magic dammit Sirius! I should have known your horndog ways would cause a major mess!"

Her eyebrows were twitching, but at least she wouldn't have to deal with this on the magical side of things...much. Even if she found the bastard laws beyond stupid, for once they were saving her a load of headaches.

Mukuro and Chrome (Nagi wanted a fresh start, and thus legally had her named changed) looked at her with expectation.

"Good news... you're half siblings. Bad news, never, ever go to England without me escorting you unless you want to deal with bigotry, outright verbal abuse and outdated laws that will make you want to kill people and will likely get you arrested," said Harmony twitching. Seeing the looks they were giving her, she sighed. "Long story short, magical England still has a lot of outdated laws, especially when it comes to bastard children of an ancient and noble house. Fortunately I adopted you two under my name legally on that side, so the damage should be as minimal as possible."

Mukuro twitched.

"What."

"According to these results, you two are the products of what could only be IVF. Your father was the head of the ancient and noble house of Black before his death, and because neither of your mothers could have possibly married him before you were conceived, you would automatically be considered bastard children by default. However since I am the current head of the family and had already adopted you as my siblings as members of the Black family before it became known, the damage done should be minimal, if hopefully nonexistent."

Mukuro did not look happy.

"Where is our 'father'," he spat.

Harmony had a pained look on her face.

"Dead. And he has been for several years. He was also falsely imprisoned for a crime he didn't even commit on a literal hell on earth where all his failures were shoved in his face for every hour of the day for twelve long years before he broke out and he barely managed to maintain his sanity through a loophole that no one even knew about. He would have had no idea you even existed since by the time he got out he was barely hanging on to his sanity by a scant thread because of his magical oath as my godfather. I can only assume he went to one of those clinics that pay people for certain...donations...before his arrest, since he was rendered sterile after his escape from over exposure to those demons."

Chrome blinked, not really getting it. Harmony sighed.

"And I can already see I'm going to need to give you a certain talk. Which reminds me... Mukuro, exactly _how_ long were you and your friends on the run?"

Mukuro had a sudden premonition of inescapable doom heading his way.

"Several years. Why?"

Harmony was already on the phone texting her husband. Dino promptly began banging his head against his desk the second he read it... at least he had prior experience to this. And he knew Harmony would have to go through a similar headache.

Good thing he loved his wife.

"So what does this mean?" asked Chrome innocently.

"Basically it means that I'm your permanent legal and magical guardian. And again, never go into England without me with you to deter most of the idiots. They will hold the old bastard laws over you just to get to me because you're Sirius' children and some might try to claim that Mukuro is the rightful heir of the Black family. I'm afraid logic and common sense died due to severe inbreeding in the magical UK. At the very least they might attempt to use you as breeding stock Chrome, since you _are_ a female Black by blood and therefor a 'half blood'," said Harmony with sympathy.

Chrome shrunk into herself.

"I'm only giving you fair warning... god knows I went through just as much hell because those imbeciles were of the opinion that girls should stay home and pop out large numbers of children like it's still the middle ages or something," said Harmony in disgust.

Not that she didn't already fit the stereotype, but at least it was _her_ choice and she could always step out into a more active role whenever she wished.

She just didn't feel like it at the moment.

* * *

 _A few days later..._

"Anyone else noticed Mukuro and the others acting weirder than normal?" asked Hayato.

"It's not just them. Chrome's been blushing like... oh," said Tsuna in realization.

"Oh?" said Hayato.

"I think Dino will understand when I explain it to him," said Tsuna grimacing. He went to the liquor cabinet and pulled out a relatively weak wine bottle, before motioning for Mukuro to come over. It didn't take much convincing to drag Ken and Chikusa in with them.

"I'm confused," said Takeshi.

"The 'Talk'," clarified Tsuna.

Hayato blinked, before a pained understanding came onto his face.

"Oh god, they got to you too?" asked Hayato. Mukuro nodded, unable to look anyone in the eye. "At least you didn't have to get the 'extra' version."

"Extra?" asked Ken faintly.

"Long story short, Hayato is bi rather than straight as is Takeshi," said Tsuna tiredly.

Hayato had been beyond confused why he felt attracted to Takeshi, and upon further investigation found out that the Rain had similar feelings but was too embarrassed to ask his father. And the less said about their 'peers' the better. Though they still reacted around girls like normal.

"Harmony had to take us aside and explain about how some people like both and how the mechanics of it worked," said Hayato with a grimace. Who knew she had a yaoi fetish?

The two of them had been too embarrassed to speak for days, at least until Takeshi slipped back into his whole "mafia game" thing and got on Hayato's nerves that they fell back into a familiar pattern.

Only now their comments weren't as biting as they were before.

"And the wine?" asked Chikusa.

"When they put us through it, we went out on a guy's weekend for three days until we got over the worst of it," said Tsuna. "I'm sure they'd understand letting you ditch school for a day or two from a hangover."

The odd warmth in Mukuro's chest blossomed into a conflagration and it felt like coming home in some way. He relaxed considerably.

"Besides... this way we can still the movie theater room Dino installed the second he found out Harmony was pregnant again and watch some action movies or something," said Hayato.

The only surefire way to get Harmony to stay off her feet and take it easy was to put on a movie marathon. She was still catching up for what she missed growing up. The fact she had a fellow movie buff in Skull made it easier to trick her into a several day long marathon.

"What about Chrome?" asked Mukuro.

"Odds are Harmony will take her on a girl's day out or possibly a whole weekend," said Tsuna.

He wasn't that far off the mark, as it later turned out.


	16. Chapter 16

**Just to be clear I've been wanting to use the "Harry is related through Daniella thing" long before I started Forgotten Familigia.**

* * *

"How do I keep getting roped into giving _that_ Talk to kids?" asked Dino over whiskey with Squalo and Xanxus.

The two Varia snorted.

"Better you than us. We'd probably traumatize the little shits," said Xanxus.

Squalo suddenly paled, as he realized something.

"Oh don't tell me..." said Dino, horrified.

"I never gave Belphegor that talk, and now that I think about it he does have really violent mood swings. I don't think I've ever seen a single porn mag laying around that room of his and it's a pigsty," said Squalo. How the hell did he miss that?

Dino was already on the phone.

"Harmony, could you do me a monumental favor...? Belphegor never got 'that' talk."

He slumped in relief.

"She said she'd give me a break and give it to him with Reborn and Colonello's help. Send him over during the weekend, because I know I saw several wine bottles missing from the cabinet...with most of the boys suffering what could only be their first hangover."

Tsuna had openly admitted to getting them out once he realized what Mukuro and the other two went through. Dino had cleared them from two days of school as a result and didn't blame them in the least.

The Talk was always awkward as hell. Chrome actually had it slightly easier... she was spared the worst of the details of what happened during a pregnancy since she'd be witnessing them all first hand while Harmony went through it a second time.

Dino planned to get completely plastered. Never in a million years would he have guessed he'd be on friendly terms with Squalo and Xanxus of all people, or that he'd end up the surrogate father/older brother figure for a bunch of teens who had been royally screwed over by the mafia and the world in general.

Thank god for Harmony. He wouldn't trade her for anything in the world and would happily die for her.

She had the weirdest effect of befriending the unlikeliest of people like it was nothing, and then giving those closest to her a reason to befriend them as well.

Xanxus was still an angry, violent asshole who drank too much and swore worse than a sailor just because he could...but compared to how he was before it was a major difference.

Squalo had matured from the angry teenager Dino remembered him as, but now they were close friends which rather surprised him.

At least he had someone to share the misery of the mess that the Ninth generation and the failures of the minor familigias left behind for them to deal with.

The two other mafioso patted him on the back, before helping him get completely drunk.

* * *

Belphegor was confused as to what this 'talk' was about. And why Squalo looked like he wanted to bang his head against the wall repeatedly for missing something so obvious. Lussuria and Mammon were no better. The second they found out that he had never gotten this...talk...they both looked like they wanted to kill something.

Apparently all three of them assumed that one of the others had given him this 'talk', only to find out now that none of them had.

So they shoved him into a room with Harmony, Reborn and the Rain Arcobaleno.

A weird sense of almost dread fell upon him. But it was accompanied by a strange sense of relief, as if a lot of questions he hadn't known who to ask would finally be answered.

"Alright Prince Bel... since my husband apparently couldn't handle giving this twice in such a short time period he asked me to step in. I'll leave most of the technical details to them, but if you have any questions you'd rather not share with another male you can ask me. Okay?"

Belphegor nodded.

It quickly became apparent what this was actually about, and while it would have been embarrassing in other circumstances, this was more of a relief for him.

He had been beyond confused as to what the hell was going on and only had the vaguest idea of what was happening to him. And since in the Varia, weakness was an almost death sentence he hadn't asked any of the other Officers what he was going through.

Lussuria might have been a good choice, but it was hard for him to consider going to the 'big sister' when damn near everyone knew of the man's fetishes, and he loathed hospital rooms in general. Even if Lussuria did try to make it as unlike a proper hospital room as possible.

Squalo was always busy, and when he wasn't he was beyond stressed and more inclined to yell at him for something stupid.

Mammon... while he didn't care about the fact the infant would have charged him, he didn't think bothering the Mist about something like this was worth the annoyance of having to pay the fake baby repeatedly just for basic information.

Reborn looked like had a major headache by the end of it, and if he had been an adult would have looked twenty years older. Having to give this same explanation to a bunch of teenagers _three_ times over was tiring and made him feel every year his actual age.

Colonello managed to hold back his own embarrassment, and managed to get the basics out without blushing too badly.

Both of them were beyond glad that Belphegor asked most of his questions to Harmony, since he trusted her more than he did the two Arcobaleno.

Unlike before, Belphegor had very little shame about the whole thing. Though he wasn't quite ready to explore his hormones just yet, considering the info dump he just got.

Harmony cheerfully directed him to the younger boys and told Tsuna he was allowed to break open the liquor cabinet for the night, since they had the weekend off again. The teen didn't need much of an explanation why, considering the look on Reborn's face.

* * *

"I felt them kick!" said Chrome excitedly.

Harmony was starting to really show, and with it came the usual kicks and complaints from the infant.

She found it endlessly amusing that the teenagers had such fascination with the infant inside her, Mukuro included. Even if he had freaked out when he realized he had just kidnapped a pregnant 'civilian'.

Not that she was one, but in the eyes of the mafia she might as well be. Mukuro found it hilarious that she was a queen lying in wait until the stronger mafioso did something to piss her off that she threw off her peasant disguise to rip them all a new one.

Even Belphegor was getting in on the fascination. The minute they realized that part of the reason the Storm was so screwed up in the head was from a chemical balance and no one paying attention, Squalo practically begged Harmony to take him in for a month or two until he gained some much needed stability.

He'd still be a bloodthirsty little asshole, but at least he wouldn't have such violent mood swings that left a lot of dead bodies.

The only thing holding him to sanity was Xanxus, and he got screwed over twice because of the stunt Timoteo pulled.

With any luck, Harmony's weird stabilizing effect would put a leash on Prince the Ripper.

Belphegor was much easier to live with in comparison to that asshole.

"Ushishishi... I think I felt it move," said Belphegor openly fascinated.

Thanks in part to a carefully prescribed set of potions (and having a much less bloody outlet for his haywire hormones), Belphegor felt a lot more clear headed and less inclined to stab people at random.

He still loved to kill people... it was too late to change that behavior, and he was still fascinated by blood mostly because of some vampire in his ancestry, but he was on a much more even keel than he had been since before Xanxus was initially frozen.

Having someone who was utterly unafraid of him and completely accepted his real self had helped a lot.

Belphegor openly purred like a cat when he felt the hand on his head, running through his hair. Though she was careful not to dislodge his crown. His head was on Harmony's lap, and she had deliberately picked the long couch so he could spread out.

"I swear you must be a feline animagus," joked Harmony gently. Belphegor didn't comment, content to just laze about with Harmony's Sky lingering around the room.

"Gahahaha! You can't catch me!" shouted Lambo, with I-Pin, Ren and Diana chasing him. Fuuta was trying to keep up, but when he saw Harmony he gave it up as a bad job and flopped down on the couch to curl up on Harmony's free leg.

Harmony smiled and ran her free hand through Fuuta's hair.

Honestly, it was like she adopted a bunch of little cats instead of children and teens.

Of course her peaceful days were about to get another curveball thrown in their way.

One that would lead to yet another headache none of them saw coming.

* * *

Harmony took one look at the half-rings and her face went completely blank.

"Let me get this straight. Sawada finally found out he lost custody of Tsuna to Xanxus and then he somehow convinced you to act as the one to hand his son the half-rings _three years early_?" she hissed. "His Lightning isn't even six, for god's sake!"

"Oh that's not the best part," said Dino darkly. "The bastard had the gall to threaten _you_ and the kids. I only went along with it so I could see you rip that fool a new one once he gets here."

"He _what_?" said Xanxus with a roar, having come over the second he heard the rings were already on the move.

"He said he'd let it slip where the ranch was to the Alliance since it's known you spend more time there then at my mansion along with the twins."

Harmony's expression went completely flat.

Her ranch was her _sanctuary_ , but more than that it was her territory. For Sawada to try and reveal the location so that she would have to deal with intruders who would hurt her, the kids or even the animals.

"Xanxus, could you bring Mammon here for a moment? I'm going to need their help spreading something among the Alliance. By the time I'm done Iemitsu will be persona non grata in the mafia, and with any luck Timoteo will be next. And Xanxus? I'm going to need the other half of the rings for my plan to work."

Xanxus didn't hesitate, and within minutes Mammon was in the mansion ready to leak whatever Harmony wanted them to. Though he was curious as to why she wanted both sets of the half-rings.

"What do you want me to do?" asked Mammon.

"I want you to spread it among the Alliance what Iemitsu and Timoteo did to Tsuna, along with the fact that Iemitsu lost custody of his son to Xanxus and that he has a warrant out for his arrest among the Flame Community for his stupidity. And if word has spread about the rings, then I want you to let it be known that Sawada openly threatened my husband in an effort to indirectly kill his former son and the boy's guardians, since his Lightning is only five."

Xanxus winced. Harmony wasn't pulling any punches now.

"Why do you want the other half of the rings?"

"I'm going to hold them hostage. And if anyone complains then I'll be more than happy to share what my Flame type is along with _my_ Guardians with vivid detail," said Harmony bluntly.

Harmony was _very_ pissed off if she was willing to expose the fact she was an Active Sky and had four of the Arcobaleno as her Guardians.

Mammon was already going to work, spreading the news about Iemitsu's stupidity. Though the way the Mist spun it, the "External Adviser wanted the Decimo candidate of the Vongola dead through indirect methods" along with "the External Adviser lost custody of his son, the Decimo candidate to Xanxus because he sealed the boy and Infected his wife"...and of course the most damning thing of all "the External Adviser threatened the Cavallone Decimo into acting as his accomplice in killing his son".

They didn't even bother hiding who was spreading the news, which took off like wildfire within hours.

Reborn only had to take one look at the box Harmony had confiscated before he understood why she was sowing this much chaos.

The half-rings shouldn't have been sent for another two years at the least. A year and a half of training was hardly sufficient for Tsuna to be thrown into the spot light in the mafia and would only bring more trouble than he was ready for.

"So Iemitsu finally found out Tsuna's no longer his son."

"And now he's trying to kill him," agreed Harmony, stabbing a tomato with more viciousness than was warranted.

Xanxus came in and dumped a second box on Harmony. Just to make it easier to keep track of the troublesome things, she snapped them together, starting with the Sky ring.

Only for a female ghost that Xanxus and Reborn recognized _immediately_ to appear the moment the rings were together in a flash of flame.

She beamed at Xanxus before grinning at Harmony who stared at her in disbelief.

Harmony looked very much like she wanted to bang her head against something.

"Why?! Why does this crap always happen to me?!" she said to no one in particular.

Daniella Vongola, the Ottavo (and only female boss) of the Vongola Familigia laughed merrily.

" _Well of course you would summon me by putting them together! You are my niece after all!"_

"What."

Xanxus and Reborn were on the same page. What did the Ottavo mean Harmony was her _niece_?

Daniella grinned at them all and even _cooed_ at Xanxus before she disappeared.

"You know what, screw it. Reborn, you're coming with me to get a family tree from the goblins. Somehow I'm fairly certain we're all going to need a drink once we get through this mess."

"You're pregnant."

"I can still pretend I'm drinking wine instead of grape juice," she deadpanned.

Reborn nodded in agreement. Within two hours Harmony came back and her entire face was twitching.

Dino was on her in seconds.

"What happened?"

"I accidentally summoned Daniella Vongola from the Sky ring, and she dropped the fact I was related to the Vongola when I demanded to know why she was there," said Harmony, twitching.

"Well?" asked Xanxus.

"Apparently Daniella's younger brother knocked up my maternal grandmother, but he died before he could marry her...though not before 'sampling the goods' if you get my drift. Now that I think about it, Petunia did always bitch about how her mother took up with an Italian and had to remarry in a hurry because she was pregnant with Lily and it was a bad idea to have a child out of wedlock in Ireland during that time. Which makes me Daniella's great-niece on my mother's side..." said Harmony annoyed.

"Which means her Sky Flames are entirely genetic," said Reborn.

"So... you're our cousin?" said Tsuna.

"And a viable heir to the title of Vongola Decimo, since you are directly related to the eighth boss," said Reborn.

"No thank you! I am not getting roped into that mess, especially the paperwork!" said Harmony shuddering. "At best we can use this as an excuse for why I'm not handing over the rings to Tsuna, and claim I'm a placeholder until he's old enough to handle the responsibility."

"Unusual, but acceptable since you are married to an allied familigia," said Xanxus with approval. Not even his old man would be able to get the rings back when this came out.

And it would if Iemitsu tried to press the issue, or even Timoteo.

Harmony was not going to risk Tsuna's life over something as stupid as this, especially when it meant involving a baby Lightning who was too young to properly shoulder the responsibility of being a Guardian.


	17. Chapter 17

Iemitsu's return to Japan after five years was nothing like he expected. First Basil had been arrested by the cops for causing a disturbance at his home, then he found himself being held back by airport security and almost arrested as well!

How the hell did Xanxus manage to get a warrant out for his arrest that fast?

It wasn't until he went to the darker side of Namimori that his blood ran cold with fury.

Apparently someone was _very_ busy in completely trashing the Vongola's name.

And the Varia didn't even _bother_ to hide the fact they were the ones to spread the rumors.

Timoteo should have never taken in that ungrateful gutter trash, Sky Flames or not.

Seeing the familiar scarred features of the illegitimate fourth son, Iemitsu saw red...only to end up on the wrong end of a haymaker from the pregnant wife of the Cavallone Decimo. He was sent flat on his ass and promptly chained up.

"That is for threatening my husband and my children," she growled, a note of impending death in her voice. "Fon, Colonello, make sure that bastard is fully secured. I'm sure the Temple Guards would like a long detailed chat with him concerning his crimes on Japan's soil against his own kin."

Iemitsu's eyes bulged at the sight of the Rain and Storm Arcobaleno. What were they doing here, much less following the orders of a civilian?

Colonello he could understand, as everyone knew at this point that the Cavallone Decimo had hired the man as the permanent bodyguard for his wife...though there was a lot of speculation as to what Dino had on the Rain to pull that off without driving the familigia bankrupt for real this time.

But Fon? A man known for his neutrality and role as a neutral enforcer among the Triads?

What the hell was going on?

* * *

Timoteo had no idea his life was about to get a hundred times more complicated.

First Iemitsu sent out the rings far too early for reasons he never bothered to explain, and within hours of learning that information from Oregano rumors start springing like wildfire that the Vongola was trying to indirectly kill the last living heir of the Primo and the current Decimo candidate after they deliberately weakened him with a Flame Seal when he was a child!

As if that wasn't bad enough, the Cavallone sent a letter to the Vongola stating explicitly that if they didn't control their External Adviser then they were going to drag the Vindice in to mediate a meeting between the Cavallone Decimo and other parties and the Vongola.

Apparently Iemitsu had threatened the Decimo's wife in order to force the man to deliver the rings to Tsuna, while sending a decoy in the form of his apprentice Basil.

There were also rumors that Iemitsu lost custody of his son to _Xanxus_ of all people, though the Wrath had openly elected the Cavallone Decimo and his wife to act as his proxies.

Timoteo rubbed his face. Things had become very complicated in short order ever since he decided to drag Tsunayoshi in as his heir.

So when he heard new rumors that the Cavallone's wife was holding the half-rings hostage until Tsuna came of age or had finished Reborn's training, he decided enough was enough and cleared his schedule.

He needed to visit Japan to get answers directly and find out what the hell was going on before things spiraled out of control any further.

Timoteo looked every year his age when the shock of seeing his mother's ghost from the ring out and about fainted.

Mostly because Daniella was _firmly_ on Harmony's side when it came to Tsunayoshi to the point she was giving him one hell of a riot act for letting things get this far, starting with his inability to keep his OWN heirs alive and ending with the horrible mismanagement of Iemitsu and his blatant insanity.

And the Temple Guards had confirmed Harmony's suspicions about Iemitsu. The man was a narcissistic sociopath who didn't give a damn about his own child to the point he thought nothing of almost literally sending his son to his early grave along with his Guardians.

How the Vongola missed the fact Iemitsu was an _inverted_ Sky (which meant it was almost impossible for him to find Guardians) was a complete mystery as it was pretty damn obvious to anyone who spent more than five minutes with him.

An inverted Sky only saw themselves and their Harmony was focused inward to the point that there was very little chance of them attracting Guardians. As such it only lead to a downward spiral of narcissistic and selfish behavior.

That Iemitsu was clearly a sociopath on top of his narcissistic stupidity...well, that just meant he was clearly unfit to ever be a leader of _anything_ , Sky Flames or not.

But that wasn't the worst part of it. Oh no.

The worst part was that a mere _civilian_ had the Vongola familigia by the balls and she damn well knew it. Worse, she knew exactly how to deal with manipulative old men who should have retired much sooner.

There was one question he did have though.

"How on earth were you able to summon my _mother_ out of the Sky Ring?"

Harmony had a pained look on her face.

"Blame Giovanni Vongola, Daniella's younger brother."

"...The one who died in an attack by an enemy familigia in England?" said Timoteo slowly, dawning disbelief in his voice.

"He knocked up my grandmother before he had a chance to properly propose, and she remarried in a hurry since she was Irish and had no other family. Fortunately she managed to hide her condition so no one figured it out that she had already been pregnant at the time."

Timoteo was not an idiot, regardless of his foolish choice in making Iemitsu head of CEDEF or going along with the idea to seal the man's son.

If Harmony Cavallone really _was_ his cousin from his long dead uncle Giovanni from an unplanned pregnancy (which would explain why he was in England long enough to be targeted) then there was a very high chance that she had Flames.

Specifically Sky Flames.

Everyone wondered what it was that the Cavallone had over Colonello, the Rain Arcobaleno, to the point that he canceled his decades long contract with Mafia Land for permanent bodyguard detail around a civilian woman. There was no way the Cavallone could possibly give the man a deal lucrative enough that he would stay with them for so long.

Unless they hadn't given him a deal at all.

"You're Colonello's Sky, aren't you?" he half-asked, half-guessed. It would explain more than it didn't.

"Not just Colonello's Sky," said Harmony bluntly.

Timoteo looked around and saw four of the eight current Arcobaleno.

Viper was already attached to his adopted son Xanxus.

But seeing Fon, Reborn _and_ Skull on top of Colonello's obvious presence slammed the truth home.

He sagged into the chair, the truth hitting him like a ten ton brick.

"What do you intend to do with the rings?"

"I am going to hold onto them until Tsuna is at least eighteen, when he will be old enough to make his own decisions. The fact Iemitsu sent them now, when he's barely had over a year of training is completely ridiculous. Never mind the fact that Tsuna's Lightning is _five_. Expecting a child that young to understand the responsibility and burden of being a Guardian is beyond stupid and goes straight into ridiculous," said Harmony flatly. "And since I have a valid claim to the same title, there should be no arguments from the Alliance. And if they try to press the issue I _will_ retaliate until they understand that I will not allow Tsuna to take the title of Decimo until he's older."

Timoteo winced at the accusation. It was like he was facing his mother when she was well and truly pissed off. Still, he could openly explain to the Alliance that the rings were currently in the position of a placeholder until his heir or his Guardians were old enough to take them on.

Seeing the Vongola don defeated by an angry, pregnant Sky was something Reborn was going to find hilarious for a very long time. There was no way in hell Timoteo or the Vongola were going to live down the fact they were told off by someone everyone in the mafia considered an "informed civilian" because her only connection to the Cosa Nostra was through her husband and her bodyguard.

Either way, no one in the Alliance was crazy enough to piss off Harmony as badly as the Vongola had by trying to kill the children in her care.

And finding out she was directly related to the Ottavo (and therefor a potential Decimo candidate in her own right) meant that no one said a word about her keeping the Sky Ring until the current heir was old enough to take the title and reveal himself.

Anyone who did think to ask questions was quickly shut up by offering to ask her directly. Considering she was able to beat the current Vongola don into submission with mere words, that kept the complaints to a minimum.

Though the Vongola's reputation took a massive hit when the "rumors" were confirmed. Harmony produced medical documents and proof, and Iemitsu had been more or less abandoned by the Vongola after his recent behavior...especially when it came to his own _son_.

* * *

It was a perfectly ordinary morning...right up until Harmony felt a twinge across the bond she had with her twin children and a sharp stab of alarm go across her mind.

She was up and out of the house before she even registered where she was going. By the time she made it to the scene, her children were missing, Romario and Dino's Rain were badly injured (but not in a way that made it impossible to get answers _now_ ) and she was positively livid with fury.

"Who?" she demanded.

"Death Eaters. They were laughing at how easy it was to get the children of the girl-who-lived," said Romario. It was clear he was very pissed off.

As impish as the twins were, everyone adored Ren and Diana.

Harmony didn't feel the hot spark of rage that often dominated Xanxus' Sky Flames and fueled his Wrath.

No, this was the icy chill of a very pissed off mother who's children was being threatened.

By the time the general alarm about the twins being taken (which set off a very large number of people) the English magical enclaves would have no idea of what was about to descend on their backwater society.

* * *

 _In England..._

Everyone with even a lick of real power felt it. The sensation of an unstoppable, oncoming storm that would wipe all the slates clean.

When the first wave hit, it brought hope to those unable to leave the country before the ICW slammed down bans that kept first generation magicals trapped in hell. Entire families were wiped out within a single night down to the last child. Unspeakable atrocities occurred at least every other month.

The great Albus Dumbledore was so content to keep playing things safe, believing that their "Savior" would return to do her duty and end the war, while chaining his people down and casting them out if they dared to strike back with force. He gave redemption to those who didn't deserve it and refused to see his blind faith in the greater good was destroying everything around him.

Three Death Eater hide outs were annihilated to the point that the foundations were turned to rubble within a week. Five teams from the Order of the Phoenix had their wands snapped, their magic bound and tossed into cells they couldn't readily escape from.

It took a full two months before people woke up and realized that for once, someone was actually fighting back and _doing_ something without handing out 'redemption' to the side doing most of the damage or falling for Dumbledore's empty promises.

It took two weeks before people found out what had set off the _very_ pregnant Savior that she would willingly return to deal with the problem.

Voldemort had her children hostage.

Dumbledore was sitting calmly, despite the fact he was surrounded by people who would happily see him dead at the first look of disapproval from Harmony Potter.

"You have a lot of god's be damned explaining to do," she snarled. "Not only have you let things escalate to this level of depravity, but you've clearly lost your mind!"

"There's no need to be so testy. I know that females in your state can be rather...delicate...but that is no excuse to lose your temper," said Dumbledore with a placating tone.

He quickly shut up when she shoved her wand under his chin with a look that could kill.

"Just because I am pregnant does not mean I am a fool, _Dumbledore._ Not only have you allowed that idiot Riddle and his merry band of morons run roughshod over most of the UK and parts of Europe, but you openly restrict your men from actually getting off their asses and doing something about it. Which is why your level of incompetence will no longer be tolerated."

Dumbledore gasped as the magic-draining cuffs were slammed on his wrists. Harmony easily liberated his wand...which promptly bonded to her over him.

He would be dead by morning from the shock of having his Flames forcibly suppressed and being unable to use his magic.

When asked later, Harmony would claim that she was exercising Moody's Constant Vigilance considering her "fragile state" and had him chained up with the special hand cuffs on principle just in case he was someone under polyjuice or a glamour there to kill her. Considering there was no way to actually prove she was lying her ass off, no charges would ever be filed.

On an unrelated note, the Order was very relieved to have the shackles that kept them from actually doing anything removed and that someone far more competent was going to clean this mess up.

Snape was given one last mission...find out where the hell her children were and she'd let him live. He had operated as a double spy under severe protest and not only had Dumbledore never bothered to use the information he _did_ pass along correctly, but he was really getting tired of all the damn Crucio's aimed his way from his so-called Master.

"Nufufufu..."

"I do not have time for a shade that should have died centuries ago. Either get out of my way while I retrieve my children from these idiots, or help me end them in as painful and as brutal a manner as inhumanely possible," said Harmony without looking up.

Daemon Spade blinked.

For some reason he saw a weird mixture of Giotto and Elena in the pregnant woman who was just a few weeks from popping, and it was really messing with his head.

"How do you know I won't kill you right now for stealing the rings?" he asked casually.

"I'm Daniella's great-niece. I'm holding on to them because the head of CEDEF is a complete and utter moron and tried to instigate a Ring Battle and get his son killed when he hasn't even had more than a year of proper training, never mind fully worked off that damn seal," said Harmony flatly. She turned to look at the possessed man. "And if you behave I might be able to convince Verde to clone Mukuro so you have a real body to possess without having to fight for control. I do need a Mist, after all."

Verde had harmonized with Harmony the second she started tossing him soon-to-be-dead magicals with the strict orders that they not leave his labs alive... or if they did, that they were so disfigured that they were killed on sight on general principles.

Verde was not one to turn down free unwilling test subjects, much less magical ones that would be unable to escape. Harmony would supply him with people he could throw his more dangerous experiments at in exchange for him working occasionally with the two young inventors that immediately had his interest.

He got free food, a proper lab, two young bucks that could actually keep up with him and Harmony was more inclined to let him do what he loved rather than send him out for field work unless she thought he'd enjoy it. Being tied to a Sky that was only loosely affiliated with the Vongola and had very little to do with the one she married into was a small price to pay.

Daemon stared at Harmony.

"What's in it for me?"

"You get to screw over the magical enclaves here and I don't have to look for a Mist anymore," deadpanned Harmony. "I would ask Luna, but she's too busy recovering to properly take the spot right now."

Daemon stared, before he chuckled again. He liked this woman... she reminded him of the times Elena had that no-nonsense tone in her voice and force...er, _convinced_ him that it was in his best interests to do what she told him, mixed with that idiot Giotto's conviction and charisma.

"Oh, and if you happen to make Vongola Nono's paperwork quadruple while making Iemitsu's life hell, I'm sure the others would be _delighted_ to lend you help. I have it on good authority Reborn has had several ideas on that front."


End file.
